Although the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the meeting with Hashim Thaci said that Kosovo needs to adopt the agreement on the demarcation with Montenegro as soon as possible on Thursday, it is uncertain whether it will happen soon.
A border agreement between Montenegro and Kosovo was signed on 26 August 2015. However, the problems then began.
Representatives of the opposition have repeatedly announced that they are ready to prevent the ratification even at the cost of visa liberalisation for Kosovo. Neither the parties of the ruling coalition, PM Isa Mustafa’s Democratic League, Thaci’s Democratic Party and Serbian List, are united on this issue.
Kosovo analyst Imer Mushkolaj told CdM that demarcation agreement with Montenegro is unlikely to pass in the Kosovo Parliament at the moment.
“In June last year, the government set up a commission and tasked it with measuring the area of Kosovo. Probably the commission will need another three to four months to finish the job it started. Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said that voting on the agreement on the demarcation with Montenegro should be held by June. Therefore, although Thaci urges MPs to vote, I don’t believe it will happen soon,” said Mushkolaj.
According to him, if Thaci wants to vote on the agreement soon, he must dismiss the commission first.
“This is the first condition. However, if the ruling coalition decides to vote on the demarcation, a parliament session can be scheduled easily. But the agreement at this moment is unlikely to be adopted,” the analyst said.
He pointed out that there were disagreements within the ruling coalition on this matter.
“The problem is that there is no consent within the coalition when it comes to demarcation agreement with Montenegro. Also, the fact that Serbian List is currently boycotting the Parliament represents another problem,” said Mushkolaj.
As a reminder, in August last year representatives of Kosovo’s Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) opposition movement set up an Albanian flag and plates with inscriptions “Republic of Kosovo” and “Welcome” in the territory of Montenegro.
As they put it then, it was an area which was “taken away from Kosovo in the demarcation process”.
“The only guarantee that such incidents will not happen again is to put an end to the agreement,” said Mushkolaj.
