Belgrade is shocked by the European Union’s lack of reaction to Pristina’s refusal to implement the Brussels Agreement, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said following a hospital visit with Russian diplomat Mikhail Krasnoshchekov who had been injured in Kosovo.
“We are shocked that the European Union has shown no response to Hashim Thaci’s statement, in which he said that Pristina would not abide by the Brussels Agreement. They should tell us if these agreements are still in effect. We waited for 24 hours but nothing happened,” Vucic said.
President of unrecognized Kosovo Hashim Thaci said earlier that he would not allow the Community of Serb Municipalities to be established in the region as stipulated by the Brussels Agreements. According to him, the situation has changed and he cannot let it be done in exchange for the easing of visa restrictions with the European Union. Thaci added that if the Community of Serb Municipalities was created, “the second Republika Srpska will emerge.”
The establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities is a cornerstone of the Brussels Agreement on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, signed on April 19, 2013. The 15-paragraph document mostly covers issues concerning the powers of Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo. It says that the Community will be a self-governing association of Kosovo’s mostly Serb-populated municipalities. According to the Serbian president, Belgrade has implemented its obligations under the Agreement, while Kosovo started to develop a charter for the Community of Serb Municipalities five years after the document had been signed but later suspended the work.