A year and a half ago, Kurti vetoed drafting the draft statute, now he considers it an imposition on the municipalities

Tomorrow, Kosovo is expected to officially accept the Progress Report for this year. Among other things, in this report it is requested that the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority be established on the basis of the European proposal of the draft statute. However, Prime Minister Albin Kurti does not intend to consider this request either. Unlike a year ago, now Kurti sees the formation of the Association by someone else, besides the municipalities, as an imposition.

Unlike a year and a half ago, when he vetoed drafting the Association's draft statute, Prime Minister Albin Kurti presented a different position on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Kurti said that the actions on his part, regarding the formation of the Association, would be an imposition on the municipalities.

"You all know that we already have an Association of Kosovo municipalities, if someone wants another association, then this should come from the municipalities. The prime minister does not form associations of municipalities, nor does he establish them, municipalities associate with each other. It is in the meaning of the notion of association freedom of association, not the imposition of association", said Kurti. 

His proposal to draw up the draft statute of the Association was not accepted by Serbia nor by the mediator of the talks, the European Union at that time, with the reasoning that such a thing should be done by the management team.

Despite this, the European Union brought its own draft of the Association's statute, and the formation of this mechanism based on that document was also requested in the draft report on Kosovo.

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But the head of the Executive has other demands.

"I ask to sign the basic agreement. Without signing the agreement with the implementation annex, without handing over Milan Radoicić and without withdrawing that letter from Mrs. Bërnabiq, where they say that they do not respect the territorial integrity of Kosovo, I don't know what draft statutes anyone can write, not me, but anyone", Kurti said.

There was also a request for journalists who asked questions about the Association. He said that making this issue a priority is Belgrade's point of view, while for Pristina it is the basic agreement.

"The basic agreement is the main word of Kosovo's relations with Serbia, others come from there. Serbia is interested in forgetting the Basic Agreement, forgetting the implementation annex, destroying the dialogue and putting the Association as the cart before the horses. They are interested, please do not adopt the discourse, their narrative that comes from their interest", said Kurti. 

The prime minister did not indicate whether he is aware of the new demands of the European Union in terms of the removal of punitive measures, until he said that Kosovo is not to blame for what happened a year ago in the north.

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The request to start the procedures for the establishment of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority, based on the European proposal, was highlighted in the Progress Report for Kosovo for this year.

This report is expected to be delivered to senior state officials on Wednesday.