Rasic on CSM: Self-Determination Says Stance Unchanged
The minister for communities and return suggested setting Kosovo's recognition aside for now, while the ruling movement said its stance on the Community of Municipalities has not changed.
Nenad Rasic, Kosovo’s minister for communities and return, says that after the Student List’s victory in Serbia the Government of Kosovo is better prepared to form the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (CSM). The ruling Self-Determination movement said on November 9 that its stance on the Community has not changed, and the opposition in Pristina is demanding a debate in the Assembly.
Rasic made the remarks in an interview with the Albanian daily Gazeta Express, published on November 8. Reactions came on November 9 and 10, while in Belgrade a new government has not yet been formed.
What did Rasic say in the Gazeta Express interview?
For the minister, the Community is an obligation from earlier agreements. According to a translation by the portal KoSSev, he judged that Pristina is now in a better position than before:
“I believe the Government of Kosovo, of which I am a part, is now better prepared, at a moment that is almost revolutionary or historic, when relations between Kosovo and Serbia may be able to reach a somewhat different level”
The second part of the interview concerns the recognition of Kosovo. Rasic proposes that the issue temporarily stay out of the talks and return only shortly before a possible entry of Serbia and Kosovo into the European Union, with the agreements already reached implemented in the meantime. The minister said he would argue for “recognition or non-recognition to remain aside as an issue”, adding that “it exists, but it is not being discussed at this moment”.
Rasic has held the post since December 2022, after representatives of the Serbian List left Kosovo’s institutions. Belgrade and the Serbian List disputed his appointment at the time.
What does the ruling Self-Determination movement say about the Community?
Arberie Nagavci, head of the Self-Determination parliamentary group, told Gazeta Express on November 9 that nothing has changed. According to a translation by the portal Kosovo Online, she said:
“The stance of the Self-Determination Movement and the Government has remained the same. It is public, there are also continuous statements from Prime Minister (Albin) Kurti on it, and we are staying with the same stance as before”
Nagavci added that the changes in Serbia after the elections are an internal matter for Serbia, but that it is “too early to talk about how they will affect Kosovo and further talks, because we do not know exactly what the positions are”. KoSSev and Kosovo Online translate her statement in different words, but the meaning is the same: the stance has not changed.
That stance has a history. In February 2023, Kurti set out six conditions for considering the CSM, among them compliance with Kosovo’s constitution, no executive powers, and consideration of the Community within a final agreement with mutual recognition. The European draft statute of the CSM has been waiting for a decision by Kosovo’s Constitutional Court for years.
Why are LDK and AAK demanding answers from the Government?
Jehona Ljusaku-Sadriju, head of the LDK parliamentary group, announced on the show “DPT te Fidani” on Klan Kosova television that Rasic’s statements will come before lawmakers:
“This has to be discussed. There will be a parliamentary debate, we will hold them to account in the Assembly and demand an explanation”
She accused the prime minister, saying: “Everything Kurti promised was just throwing dust in citizens’ eyes.”
The messages from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) were sharper. Daut Haradinaj posted on Facebook on Monday evening, November 9, about the visit by representatives of the Student List, students and professors to Serbian Orthodox Church sites on Sunday, November 8. Student List representatives had earlier also been in Gracanica to see Metropolitan Teodosije, as we reported. Haradinaj linked the visit to Pec and Decani with Rasic’s interview:
“Yesterday Kurti’s minister spoke about forming the Community, and today we apparently had an invasion of Serbian election winners from Belgrade, with the slogan ‘Kosovo is Serbia’. Who gave them permission to visit Pec and Decani?”
In the same post, Haradinaj mentioned the registration of 24 hectares of land in the cadastre as the property of the Visoki Decani Monastery in March 2024, which implemented a 2016 ruling of Kosovo’s Constitutional Court. Local AAK authorities in Decani had opposed this for years.
AAK spokesman Kustrim Dzemailji asked on Facebook: “Did they break the law and state protocols with this visit? Did they ask for permission and who gave it to them?” He also asked the Government to say whether its stance on the CSM has changed.
AAK parliamentary group head Besnik Tahiri was more restrained. He recalled that the Ohrid Agreement provides for the implementation of all earlier international agreements, but judged that the bigger problems lie elsewhere: “Kosovo has much bigger problems relating to the cost of living, the price of energy and the basic services provided by education and health care.”
What does Washington expect on the CSM?
Amanda Torp, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, told Kosovo Online on November 10 that the Democrats, who won majorities in both chambers of the US Congress in the midterms, will demand that Pristina form the CSM. In her assessment, the Kosovo-US strategic dialogue has been put on hold. She described the state of the dialogue this way: “Right now there is no progress at all. It is stagnation. That is a problem.” She added that the United States must tell Pristina “completely clearly and unambiguously”: “You must form the CSM.”
