Eurasia Press & News
Representatives of the opposition options in Serbia have no words of praise for the Brussels Agreement and those who accepted it ten years ago on April 19, the then Prime Minister Ivica Dačić and the first Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, who is now the President of the country.
As they say, it was the first delivery in fulfilling Vučić’s promises to solve Kosovo, because at that time there were also those who believed that the SNS had really put on a different outfit from the radicals, and in fact he was the worst negotiator in the long history of Serbia without an answer to the question of what Serbia received from the Brussels settlements.
The leader of the Serbian movement, center Zdravko Ponoš, states that Serbs and Albanians are no closer than they were 10 years ago, while Kosovo is further and further away from Serbia.
- The Brussels agreement was the first delivery in the realization of Vučić’s promises to resolve Kosovo. That qualified him to be looked down upon by the West for everything else he later did, stifling democracy in Serbia and dragging it away from the path of European integration – says Ponoš for Danas.
As he adds, from then until now, he has delivered everything that was asked of him, sometimes with a delay, but regularly with melodramatic plots, clanging weapons, invoking the Kosovo oath and making a personal sacrifice.
- In return, Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo received nothing. Serbs in the north of Kosovo were placed in a ghetto under the administration of the criminalized SNS branch. The north of Kosovo became a hot hideout for organized crime, all kinds of smuggling, illegal mining of crypto-currencies at the expense of all citizens of Serbia who paid for the electricity used. Serbs south of the Ibar are left to themselves and to the whims of the Pristina authorities – he describes.
According to him, Vučić’s Kosovo policy entailed huge financial expenditures for Serbia, but with a weak effect on the quality of life of Serbs in Kosovo.
- Non-transparency, unfairness, corruption and buying loyalty is the main feature of spending these funds. Today, Kosovo is much further from Serbia than it was in 2012, i.e. before Vučić and SNS came to power. That difference is the result of Vučić’s Kosovo policy, which experienced a debacle – he says.
As he points out, the Serbs did not even get that provisional agreement from the Brussels Agreement, which is called the ZSO.
- Sooner or later, the question of responsibility will have to be raised, and not only political. With the latest agreement from Ohrid, Vučić did immeasurable damage to the process of Serbia’s European integration by accepting that progress on that path is conditioned by Serbia’s cooperation around Kosovo.
It has been shown that this government is capable of losing what was yet to come along with Kosovo. Their ability to continue in the same direction, but even more disastrous, should not be doubted. That is why overthrowing the Vučić regime in the next elections is a patriotic act and a matter of civic responsibility – says Ponoš.
While Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, the leader of Zavetnik, tells Danas that in those days when the Brussels Agreement was signed, the front pages of the pro-government media announced that a great victory had been achieved, that the government had performed a historic maneuver and defended state interests.
- Patriotic and state-building forces have been warning for months about the deception that Brussels has prepared for Serbia and the catastrophic consequences that await us if Dacic and Vucic agree to such a scenario. At that time, a similar rhetorical arsenal was fired at us, which we still have the opportunity to listen to criticizing the Franco-German plan – she remembers.
As he adds, by defending what they did in Brussels, they let their imagination run wild.
- They promised gardens of paradise, high average salaries, the Union of Serbian Municipalities, a flourishing economy and a guaranteed future in the EU. However, not even ten years later, the political brothers Grimm did not bear responsibility for the disastrous policy towards Kosovo and Metohija. On the contrary, they continued to assure us that it was for our good to abolish the Serbian institutions in the province, dissolve the Civil Protection, integrate judges into the judiciary of the “Republic of Kosovo”, provide them with a call number, and in return we would receive intensification of terror against Serbs and raids by ROSU units on terrain on which they had never set foot before, let alone comfortably patrolled – she states.
According to her, the EU celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Brussels (dis)agreements by canceling visas for the so-called Republic of Kosovo, Kurti was rewarded for daily violence against Serbs and promotion of Greater Albania, and the relationship towards Serbia was further confirmed.
- The balance is such that we can talk for hours about what this and the previous government ceded to the fake state, and remain completely silent in front of the question: what did Serbia get from the Brussels settlements. For ten years, they handed over the land in order to preserve power – she points out.
And Biljana Đorđević, member of parliament for Ne davimo Beograd, Green-Left Club, remembers that at that time, as a doctoral student, she participated in an international scientific conference in New York and a panel was urgently organized on the topic of signing the Brussels Agreement on the principles governing the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
- Because it was exceptional news and the expectations were that a way would really be found to start the path of normalizing relations between two societies and two peoples, and not just political elites. At that time, there were also those who believed that SNS had really put on a different outfit from the radicals and that no one but them would be able to carry out this kind of normalization of relations. Many now realize what a mistake it was, but at the time, neither Pristina nor the international community cared much when Belgrade forced and disciplined Kosovo Serbs to participate in the Kosovo elections using criminogenic structures that gained enormous economic and political power – says Đorđević.
According to her, there were some successes as the integration of Serbs into the Kosovo justice system was evaluated, but even that praised integration was insufficient and now, after the Serbs left the institutions, that integration has been canceled.
- The ZSO was not formed and now Pristina is referring to the non-participation of the Serbian List in the local elections as an excuse that it does not have to be formed even though Pristina ratified the Brussels Agreement in its parliament. We, on the other hand, did not do that, which is why the process was interpreted as political by the Constitutional Court of Serbia. The consequence of such concealment of the legal nature of the obligations that have been undertaken is that we have never had a substantive discussion either in the Parliament or in society about the Brussels Agreement, and even less about actual normalization – she reminds.
It seems to her that in a certain sense the new agreements and the Ohrid annex repeat some of the things from the Brussels agreement, which actually rebrands it.
- And for now, that’s all we have, while we are far from normalization – she concludes.
With the Brussels Agreement, Aleksandar Vučić abolished all the institutions of the Serbian state in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, and in the meantime handed over the phone number, the electrical energy system, the judiciary and in return, ten years later, for the third time, sold us a horn for a candle called ZSO, believes MP Stefan Jovanović of the People’s Party.
- He handed over everything – we got nothing. In fact, the worst negotiator in the long history of Serbia. Now he has agreed to a new agreement, which has more far-reaching consequences. That is why the People’s Party launched a people’s initiative to call a referendum, in order to stop this disastrous policy – Jovanović concludes.
The Brussels agreement was a hint that Serbia is ready to make a decision to find a solution to a major national problem, which prevented the establishment of normal life in the country ten years ago, as well as today. Then we wasted an entire decade, Nebojša Zelenović, MP and co-president of the Zajedno Moramo party, assesses for Danas.
Time is working against us and every day it is more difficult to defend the interests of citizens than it was before, he adds.
Today, in a more difficult situation than ten years ago, we are waiting for Pristina to form the Union of Serbian Municipalities, which should be a means of protecting the life prospects of our citizens in Kosovo, Zelenović points out.
- I am convinced that Serbia should strongly advocate that all open issues in the Western Balkans be resolved at the same time. That is why I proposed holding an international conference. We need to form the Economic Community of the Western Balkans and thus ensure the inviolability of the existing demarcation lines, which, at the same time, will not be an obstacle for twenty million people to be able to move freely, live, receive treatment, study and do business on the territory of all six political entities in the region, says Zelenović. .
According to him, big decisions require real leadership and statesmanship.
- Serbia today, as it did a decade ago, is drowning in populism and the fight to preserve votes. A big breakthrough can only be made if the citizens rise up in the fight for the true continuation of the path to full membership in the EU. Providing a clear European perspective is the task of the pro-European opposition and the Zajedno party is putting all its forces into making this happen, says Nebojša Zelenović.
