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IMPLEMENTATION OF BRUSSELS AGREEMENT AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROSPECTS FOR KOSOVO AND SERBIA

The Council for Inclusive Governance (CIG) organized a series of activities on the implementation of the April 2013 Brussels Agreement—specifically on the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities (hereinafter Association), dismantling the Civil Protection (CP) in Kosovo’s north—and on the EU integration prospects for Serbia and Kosovo.

While there was solid agreement on the dismantling of CP, participants differed diametrically on the Association’s mandate. Six of fifteen points of the Brussels Agreement are about the establishment of the Association. Though the Agreement has some ambiguity, Kosovo Albanian speakers say it clearly does not provide for any executive powers. But Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade speakers indicated that an Association without significant powers is meaningless.

The February CIG activities were part of a larger project on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and integration of the Serb community in Kosovo. The project is funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

This report offers a brief overview of the activities and outlines some of the major points on the establishment of the Association, the dismantling of the CP, and on the EU prospects for Kosovo and Serbia.

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