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Good evening,

Thank you. Well, tonight we have had again the High-level Dialogue meeting. It is the first one since Ohrid, it was an important one. And I want to thank the European Union Special Representative [for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues] Miroslav Lajčák for the important work that he has been doing since Ohrid in order to move from negotiations to implementation of the Agreement.

Yes, we have been discussing about how do we implement – how do they implement, both parties, what was agreed on 27 February in Brussels and on 18 March in Ohrid.

Firstly, and I think you have been paying attention to my Statement earlier tonight, the Parties delivered on an important point of the Implementation Annex - the Declaration on Missing Persons.

Finding and identifying the remains of about 1.621 persons still missing, missing because of the conflict, and giving their families the possibility to find closure, has always been a priority in the Dialogue.

And it was not easy to look for an agreement. Finally, we did it - they did it, and this is an important humanitarian issue, an issue that should not be politicised.

Too many families, they have suffered for far too long without getting the clarity, they deserve [to know] about the fate of their loved ones. It is finally time to close a painful chapter. 

And we hope and we expect that the commitment that the leaders made today to redouble their efforts, will enable this to happen.

We will discuss the details, to invite the Parties to come here to Brussels on how to implement this Declaration. But this is a very important chapter that comes to an end after long discussions.

Secondly, I think this is also important, the Parties took an important and symbolic step towards the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.

It was agreed 10 years ago, and today the Management Team comprised of Kosovo Serbs finally presented to the Parties the first draft. It is not the final draft, it is a starting point, but here it is, the first draft of the Statute of this Association/Community of the Kosovo Serb-majority municipalities.

This is in line with the Article 7 of the new Agreement, and the presentation of this draft makes an important part of the Agreement and I want to salute the fact that this draft was put on the table.

Prime Minister [of Kosovo, Albin] Kurti shared his own views for the protection of rights of the Serb community in Kosovo. And as expected, the views of the Parties are far apart on the nature of this Association/Community.

I didn’t expect anything else. I was sure that the parties were having different views on the nature of the Association Community of [Serb-majority] municipalities. But, even if they disagreed, they agreed to start negotiations on the statute of this Association/Community in the near future, taking this first draft as a starting point for the discussions.

And I want to urge both Parties to engage in this process constructively and in good faith and being ready to reach compromises.

The process should be guided by the past Dialogue agreements and will be inspired by existing European good practices and models. And we have a lot in Europe. We have a lot of cases of associations, municipalities, with different natures, in [almost] every [EU] country you can find a model.

And this would be taken into consideration during the negotiations. We will facilitate the process in order to reach a final agreement, starting from the draft presented today.

And finally, our last point today, which is less positive. We discussed current issues, we discussed about the situation on the ground.

I expressed, once again, our grave concern about the situation in the north of Kosovo following the recent by-elections with a very low turnout.

And it is clear, taking into account this very low turnout, that these elections do not offer a long-term political solution. And on the contrary, they have the potential to lead to escalation and to undermine the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement. And this is not what we want to happen. I hope nobody wants it to happen. But there is a big risk, and therefore I have urged both parties to find a solution that enables Kosovo Serbs to swiftly return to the institutions they left in November last year.

It is not only me, who is strongly concerned, [but] both leaders also recognised the gravity of the situation on the ground, and it is clear that concrete actions from both sides are needed to avoid any risk of escalation.

But regrettably, the leaders were unable to reach any agreement today. And I am afraid that we will be facing, maybe, I hope not, a critical situation. Talks need to continue soon.

We are now in a situation where we have a good new Agreement that provides a clear path on the way forward on normalisation of relations, but we have to continue using this framework to push this process forward. And this is directly linked to the European futures of both Serbia and Kosovo.

Once again, I want to thank my Special Representative Miroslav Lajčák for his good work and he will invite the Chief negotiators and their experts to Brussels soon. 

He will start discussing at the inaugural meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee that was created in the Ohrid Agreement [and that] will meet still this month. And let’s hope that we will be able to avoid an escalation that could lead to another crisis and jeopardise the implementation of the Agreement.

But there are good news, [the Declaration on] missing persons, the first draft of the Association/Community of [Serb-majority] municipalities. And a big concern about the situation on the ground and the need to continue working to look for a solution before the crisis erupts again.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-240609