PRISTINA, Nov 7 /ATA/ The European Commission (EC) has reprimanded Kosovo and Serbia for not implementing the agreements reached in the EU-mediated dialogue in its progress reports for both countries, which are expected to be published on Wednesday.
Radio Free Europe has checked out a draft of the 150-page report, which assesses the fulfillment or not of the criteria by Kosovo, as well as the recommendations given by the EC in previous reports.
Kosovo has made “limited progress” in meeting the standards necessary to join the EU. This is the most frequent assessment cited in the Report which the EC is expected to approve tomorrow after the meeting of the College of Commissioners.
But, in this year’s reports, both in the one for Kosovo and in the one for Serbia, increased attention has been paid to the fulfillment of the obligations arising from the Brussels dialogue, and in this matter both countries are reprimanded for not implementing them.
The normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia has been evaluated with the same text in both individual progress reports, for each respective country, as these obligations are part of the criteria for advancement in the European integration process.
Recalling the agreement reached in Brussels in February and the annex for its implementation a month later in Ohrid, the report expresses regret that the parties have not yet begun to fulfill their obligations.
“Both Kosovo and Serbia have not yet started the implementation of their respective obligations arising from the Agreement, which are valid and binding for the parties and part of their European journey. The parties should urgently start the most constructive engagement and start the implementation without new delays or preconditions”, the Progress Report states.
The report underlines the obligation of Kosovo to establish the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority. At this point, the document states that the first draft of the Association’s statute, which was presented at the high-level dialogue meeting in May, and which was practically Serbia’s draft “was not in alignment with the relevant agreements from the dialogue.”
The report now calls for the Association to be established based on the latest proposal given to the parties on October 21.
/sm/
