Event Summary:
On March 30, Group for Legal and Political Studies held a Press Conference to present to media the latest Policy Note entitled: ‘Are Belgrade’s local elections an end in itself: A view towards the dynamic plan in extending/diminishing hopes for an Ahtisaari-based authority in the northern Kosovo’. The Policy Note’s summary points are:

A. Kosovo’s Government continues to lack a more proactive and effective strategy to tackle the northern Kosovo issue, indicating its weak policy approach to address an issue of national security;

B. Serbian local elections would increase both inter-ethnic tensions and further enhance the divisions within Kosovo Serbs between those living in the north and those living south of the Ibar River;

C. Such elections in the northern Kosovo would essentially hinder the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, provoking its full breakdown;

D. Local elections would substantially jeopardize EU’s foreign policy objectives, and delegitimize its position and objectives with regard to the continuation of the Dialogue;

E. Serbian local elections in the north, at the same time, would predetermine that the northern Kosovo issue become part of the agenda of Dialogue;

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012

Venue: Group for Legal and Political Studies Office, Prishtina, Kosovo