After Zeta, Pljevlja Weighs Revoking Kosovo Recognition

A wave of local initiatives to revoke recognition of Kosovo in Montenegro has found a new address. After the municipality of Zeta, which was the first to raise the question, the Pljevlja municipal assembly has now scheduled a session on a declaration to revoke recognition of the independence of the so-called Kosovo. The session is set for July 21, and the proposal comes from local officials, not from the state leadership.

The initiative was launched by the For the Future of Pljevlja coalition, made up of the Democratic People’s Party and the New Serbian Democracy. According to available figures, the declaration is currently supported by 19 councillors in the local parliament. The document itself carries no executive force at the state level, but it sends a clear political message: that part of the local government in Montenegro refuses to stand behind a decision the central government made nearly two decades ago.

Why is Pljevlja raising this only now?

The answer lies chiefly in symbolism and in local political calculation. Pljevlja is a municipality with a significant Serb population and with parties that openly embrace a Serbian identity, so the question of recognizing Kosovo here is more than a foreign-policy matter. It is part of an internal identity dispute that has followed Montenegro since it restored its independence.

Two levels have to be kept apart. The decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence was taken by the Government of Montenegro on October 9, 2008, and that decision still stands, as do diplomatic relations with Pristina. The declaration being prepared by the municipal parliament cannot legally overturn it, because foreign policy is not within the remit of local self-government. What the declaration can do is express the position of the local level of government and create political pressure, first within the municipality itself and then toward Podgorica.

Zeta set out a pattern that Pljevlja is now following. Once one municipality opens the question, others with a similar political makeup gain a template to act on. That is precisely why the move is read publicly as the announcement of a wave rather than an isolated case.

What would the declaration actually do?

The heart of the document is a statement of rejection. Through the declaration, the municipality of Pljevlja would formally state that it does not accept the Government of Montenegro’s 2008 decision to recognize Kosovo and that it seeks its review. In legal terms this is a declarative act, a message rather than a binding norm. Its weight is political and symbolic.

For the Montenegrin authorities, it opens a sensitive question. Recognition of Kosovo is one of the foundations of Podgorica’s foreign-policy course toward the European Union and NATO, and local initiatives that call it into question create internal tension between the state leadership and part of the municipalities. The sponsors, for their part, are counting on exactly that: that a series of similar local decisions will push the issue to a level where it can no longer be ignored.

It remains to be seen how the July 21 vote will unfold and whether Pljevlja will adopt the declaration or leave it at the level of an announcement. What is certain is that the question of revoking Kosovo’s recognition has moved from one municipality to another, and that the list could grow longer. How do you see it, should local assemblies weigh in on matters of foreign policy?