Serbia Strengthening ‘Parallel Structures’, Kosovo Deputy PM Says

"The final agreement should be centred on mutual recognition," Bislimi, who is Prime Minister Albin Kurti's person in charge of the dialogue, added.

'Nothing is happening'

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti (second left) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (right) meet for the first time in Brussels, June 15, 2021. Photo: Josep Borrell/Twitter. 

For years, Kosovo and Serbia leaders have traded accusations over the failure of implementation of agreements reached in Brussels since the process started in 2011, first on technical issues and then involving top political leaders.

The so-called Brussels Agreement in 2013 envisaged the establishment of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo. But eight years on, the idea remains stuck on paper, a casualty of continuing political tensions between Pristina and Belgrade.

In 2015, Prime Ministers Isa Mustafa of Kosovo and Ivica Dacic of Serbia signed an agreement on establishing the Association, but Kosovo's Constitutional Court ruled the agreement anti-constitutional, although it gave the green light for another try.

"Nothing is happening about the Association," Bislimi said in the interview.

"Serbia says we are 'violating all the agreements but for us they are not important'. Our position is that Serbia has no credibility to ask anything from Kosovo unless it fulfils its own obligations," Bislimi said.

He added that Pristina will not move forward with the Association until Serbia accepts Kosovo's territorial integrity and scraps the so-called parallel structures - a network of Belgrade-run and funded institutions functioning mainly in the Serb-majority far north of Kosovo.

"The first [condition] is that no one contests Kosovo's...