Serbian Prime Minister Albin Kurti said he was prepared to discuss the Community of Serb Municipalities and the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, however, not as a prerequisite for the dialogue, but as part of the talks on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina based on of the Franco-German proposal.

In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Kurti said that 33 agreements were signed in Brussels over the past ten years, two-thirds of which have never been implemented in Serbia.

“I admit that these 33 agreements exist, and I am prepared to take them all into account when official talks on the normalization of relations based on the German-French proposal start in Brussels. Serbia wants to single out this one agreement and ignore the remaining 32, as well as the German-French proposal. I will have no part in that,” said Kurti.

“If we are talking about the normalization of our relations, I am prepared to discuss the Community of Serb Municipalities and the rights of the Serb minority – however, not as a prerequisite for the talks, but as their integral part,” he added.

Responding to the suggestion that Serbia is not the only one responsible for the failure of the talks because, unlike his predecessors, he is hindering the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities, Kurti said Serbia “keeps repeating that it will not recognize Kosovo,” and that Kosovo is “an artificial state,” yet “in that allegedly artificial state it wants a very real community of municipalities.”

“The Serbian solution is ‘you don’t exist, but we want something from you.’ That is not going to happen. In addition, when you ask for something you must keep in mind that the same request can be addressed to you. Minorities in Kosovo make up eight percent of the population, in Serbia about 20 percent,” said Kurti, adding that Kosovo’s Constitutional Court also ruled that the Community of Serb Municipalities is not in line with the Constitution.

The Kosovo Prime Minister also accused Belgrade of not caring about the rights of Serbs in Kosovo.

Asked to comment on European Union (EU) High Representative Josep Borrell’s criticism that he was stubbornly against a compromise at the recent talks in Brussels, Kurti said that he was “not stubborn, but faithful to principles.”

„There are principles and values that I adhere to and that I do not negotiate in Brussels. We are not going to Brussels to talk about the police, prosecutors, customs officers or land registries. We are there as representatives of two states to discuss the normalization of their relations. It is about a dialogue on a fundamental agreement, not a dialogue to overcome the crisis. We don’t need dialogue for the sake of dialogue, or to show that Brussels is active,“ said the Kosovo Prime Minister.

Kurti noted he would not have gone to Brussels if it was just about the issue of license plates, but that he goes to Brussels for the sake of a comprehensive agreement. Mr. Borrell insisted that we only sign a statement on the license plates, and to present it as a great success. That was the most important disagreement I had with him, said Kurti.