Kusari-Lila: Northern municipalities should be included in the drafting of the Association draft

The head of the Parliamentary Group of the Vetëvendosje Movement, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, is skeptical that there will be progress in the dialogue, despite the appointment of the meeting of the chief negotiators on December 17 in Brussels. According to her, it is difficult that at the end of the mandate of the Kosovar executive but also of the EU mediator, Miroslav Lajçak, there will be a big turn towards the implementation of the Brussels Basic Agreement and the Ohrid annex, reached last year.

Kusari-Lila, in an interview for KosovaPress, says that Kosovo's institutions should be involved in drafting the Association's draft statute, despite international pressure to send the Association's draft statute drawn up by the European Union to the Constitutional Court.

After several attacks in the north of the country, including the one in Ibër-Lepenc and the Banjska case as the most serious, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has conditioned the dialogue and there have been questions about the continuation of this process.

"It is a bit difficult to believe that in approximately the last meeting in this legislature or governing mandate in Kosovo, there could be any major turning point. There is no progress or change from Serbia's approach to the dialogue. Therefore, if it has to do with the compatibility of the parties to agree on the way forward, I have hesitation that we can expect something very positive, as a general result from what we had earlier. I have said it earlier, it is known where the problem is in the continuity with the implementation of the agreements and the delays and the violations that have been done to it. The address is in Belgrade and the pressure should be directed there. Now, it remains to be seen whether this will be overcome within the next meeting in Brussels", she says.

According to her, the northern municipalities should be involved and start establishing a mechanism like the Association, therefore she emphasizes that the drafting process of a draft statute should be done after the local elections in 2025.

"The solution is always that the institutions of Kosovo are engaged in the preparation of the draft, the agreement and the assessment of the circumstances in the field as well. Above all, such a process is a bit difficult to think about before the local elections that are in the fall of 2025. There must be involvement of the municipalities and of course genuine treatment and discussion on the processes ahead... Association is a matter of Kosovo. It is true that it was a dialogue agreement, but in the future the implementation and general powers and obligations are for Kosovo. Serbia, except for the discussion in relation to the Serbian community in Kosovo, but the other responsibilities are not for the Association's issue", emphasizes Kusari-Lila.

Speaking about the relations between the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani and the prime minister Albin Kurti, the head of deputies of the LVV, Mimoza Kusari-Lila says that their differences can be overcome.

Regarding this, she emphasizes that the communication at the level of the current leadership of Kosovo is continuing regardless of any differences that may exist.

"I had not characterized the differences in attitudes, but I think it is important that in the general orientation, all the institutional leaders of the country have continued without differences. It is the first time that we have had such an agreement in Kosovo. We have previously had heads of state who came through a political agreement, but in a short journey they changed direction and had much harsher language... This is presented as differences in attitudes on certain topics, but I do not see it as something insurmountable or final in general reports. I see it as important that the functionality and communication at the leadership level has continued from whatever differences we may have", she declares.

As for the February 9 elections and the electoral promises of the opposition parties, Kusari-Lila declares that they are unrealizable.

Even, according to her, it is regrettable the low level of professionalism of the opposition who promise offensive and feasible things for the citizens.

"It is unfortunate that even the little bit of professionalism that they have tried to keep as a title with their academic titles in some way tramples with their unfulfilled electoral promises, before the campaign. We all know how much the budget is, we all know how the budget categories are divided and what the possibilities are. To promise salary increases in the amount of 30-40 percent from the current value of the salary line in the public sector is unfeasible and offensive to the citizens. It is known that there are more demands than there are opportunities, therefore one should not play with this emotion, promising unaffordable increases for the country's budget. Not only with salaries but also with other categories, whether with pensions, capital investments and projects that have been able to show at the local level. Let's not forget that opposition parties today govern with municipalities. You have one in the capital and the other in the country's second largest city. We can see the results of their governance and this policy that comes with astronomical promises. The results are that they cannot manage even one of the simplest segments at the local level", concludes Kusari-Lila.