By EWB01.07.2020
PRISTINA – The Kosovo government formed the Council of experts for dialogue with Serbia today, confirmed the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Driton Selmanaj, KoSSev reports.
After RFE / RL announced yesterday that the EU still intends to continue efforts to resume dialogue on normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina, but that plans no longer include Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi, who has been indicted for war crimes, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, proposed to the government the formation of a Council of experts for dialogue with Serbia.
As specified in the announcement of the government, the Council will function within the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Coordinator for dialogue, who will also be the advisor to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, will lead this Council.
“The Council will prepare reports and documents regarding Kosovo’s position in the dialogue,” Selmanaj said, while it is also expected that the Prime Minister of Kosovo will appoint a coordinator of the Government of Kosovo for dialogue in the coming period.
At the same time, Hoti announced the formation of a state delegation for the dialogue that he will lead, KoSSev reports.
It is further stated that Hoti said at the meeting that despite the latest events, the dialogue has no alternative, and that the topic of the dialogue should be mutual recognition.
Exactly one week ago, the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed a 10-count indictment against Thaçi and Kadri Veselji on April 24. The news about the submission of the indictment for questioning was announced a few days before the scheduled meeting in Washington, which was supposed to be the first meeting of the Serbian and Kosovo delegations. It was planned to discuss the continuation of the dialogue from the moment it was suspended in November 2018, when the Kosovo government introduced tariffs on the import of goods from Serbia and BiH.