Promoting and Communicating Benefits of the Kosovo-Serbia EU Facilitated Dialogue

This project seeks to promote and communicate the EU facilitated dialogue by bringing people and attitudes closer together. Activities have been designed to reach out to the wider public – including, Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and Serbian citizens to highlight the ‘good news stories’ of the impact of the technical dialogue.

Research will magnify the human stories that have benefited from the technical agreements and at the same time, present different perspectives and challenges of the dialogue.

The peer-to-peer component offers participants opportunities to engage with other perspectives, build alliances and challenge stereotypes and misconceptions which will contribute to constructive discussions on the dialogue.

The project is realised by the KSPAG Consortium, comprised of eight likeminded NGOs who want to broaden support for the dialogue and are: Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Balkans Policy Research Group (BPRG), Democracy for Development Institute (D4D), Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), NGO ACTIV from Kosovo and Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE), European Movement in Serbia (EMinS) and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights YUCOM from Serbia.

Project Objectives

The overall objective  is to promote and communicate the benefits of the EU facilitated technical dialogue on the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia to the wider public by focusing on a number of communication and outreach activities, peer-to-peer cooperation, research and local engagement.

• Broaden the support for the Belgrade-Pristina EU facilitated technical dialogue and normalisation of relations between citizens from Kosovo and Serbia by creating effective channels for sharing the benefits and outcomes of the dialogue.
• Review the citizens’ perspective on the Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue and its process to allow a better attuned normalisation process and measures.
• Facilitate cooperation and networking among youth, CSOs, opinion-makers and media to support the Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue.
• Enhance communication and fostering the citizens’ progressive perspective on the Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue and normalisation of relations.
• Establish a standing group of CSOs and think-tanks capable of advocating for and supporting the technical dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

Key Actions

• Communication Outreach on Kosovo Serbia Dialogue
• Research, Publications and Conferences
• Peer to Peer Cooperation
• Local Engagement
• Consortium Strengthening

These articles have been published

Energy is like glue, not explosive
Milan Simurdić

Confidence in the dialogue, which was initiated with the Brussels Agreement in 2013, and led under the auspices of the EU, has been lost due to internal political constraints and the needs of the two sides, but also due to inertia and the disengagement of the world capitals. The collapse of multilateralism accompanied with weakness of diplomacy has only strengthened the amplitude of misunderstanding and has threatened with a new frozen conflict in Europe. Restoring the dialogue leading to normalization can prove to be as challenging as its initiation was. If there is a topic that can further “open” the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, why not energy?

The Dialogue: My View from Mitrovica
Florentina Hajdari-Hajra

The technical dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia started in 2011 and resulted in 33 agreements. The agreements impacted various areas of people’s lives, including freedom of movement, civil registries, cadastral records, customs, local governance in the north, recognition of diplomas, regional cooperation, energy, telecommunication, justice, etc. Improving the lives of citizens and cooperation between them was one of the key priorities of the dialogue.

Wider context of Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue
Aleksandar Kovačević

Nearly 60 years of negotiations between various local administrations at the territory of former Yugoslavia about territorial impacts and infrastructure are relevant to inform technical dialog between Pristina and Belgrade. The key lesson learned over that long period is that (rare) deliberate external interventions into physical infrastructure made a profound impact to promote durable agreements and poverty eradication, while endless political negotiations tend to overlook poverty problems. When new physical reality is established, people adjust to it and, with more or fewer frictions, the life of indigenous people gets better and political resolutions easier. Trieste crisis from the 1950s demonstrates that effect.

Division lines, and the connecting points in them (IBM)
Kozeta Dervishi

Within the technical dialogue facilitated by the European Union, in December 2011, Kosovo and Serbia reached the Agreement on Integrated Border Management, known by the acronym IBM. The agreement regulates cross-border cooperation, including joint crossing points, regular communication between police authorities, customs and other agencies.

Hello, Kosovo?
Gazmir Raci

“Dear consumer, the old code +377 as of now is no longer functional. Please use the new country code +383”.

This was a message that one of the mobile service providers in Kosovo was sending to its clients, notifying them that the country code has changed, after the agreement between Prishtina and Belgrade was reached during the technical dialogue facilitated by the European Union. This also signified the beginning of the new Kosovo identity in the area of international telecommunication.

Toxic load, safe transfer – The effects of implementing the Agreement on ADR certificates
Lulzim Krasniqi

The agreement on mutual recognition of the ADR Certificates (25 April 2016) between Kosovo and Serbia reached in Brussels with the facilitation of the EU, has contributed to the free movement of hazardous goods and allowed economic operation of Kosovo companies working in this sector, in line with European and international standards.

Effects of the Technical Agreements: The Roma Perspective
Avni Mustafa

The Roma community is one of the most disadvantaged communities living in Kosovo. Among other problems they face is the lack of Kosovo civil documents. Some Roma, for different reasons were ineligible to get Kosovo civil documents. This lack of documents impacted the further marginalisation of the members of this community.

During the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue, on 2nd July 2011, the Agreement on Civil Registry was signed, which significantly contributed to solving this problem. This agreement stipulated that the parties would jointly make every possible effort to establish a fully reliable civil registry in Kosovo aiming at identification of the gaps in missing original pre-1999 civil registry books.

Freedom of Movement in Kosovo – Between Formal Agreements and RealityFreedom of Movement in Kosovo – Between Formal Agreements and Reality
Boban Stojanović

The Agreement on Freedom of Movement, between Prishtina and Belgrade, signed in July 2011 within the scope of EU facilitated technical dialogue, aims to solve the problems of freedom of movement, or more specifically, answers the question how citizens can travel within Kosovo, as well as, how they can travel between Kosovo and Serbia and with what documents. It sets out a series of regulations on personal documents (such as ID cards), drivers’ licenses, as well as registration plates and insurance for motor vehicles.

This constant move…
Besfort Kosova

There were times when it was very difficult for citizens of Kosovo to go to Serbia. Today, this movement has been made easier, and it is a joyful feeling to be able to travel to Serbia by private car. License plates agreement, achieved in 2011 between Kosovo and Serbia as a result of the Brussels technical dialogue on improvement of the lives of citizens between the two countries, is important for the establishment of a sustained long-lasting normalization of the relations among the two sides.

Brussels Agreements: The Impact on Our Daily Lives
Jovana Radosavljevic

The agreements resulting from the Brussels Dialogue managed to positively affect the lives of people in Kosovo, despite the fact that the public was aggravated when the “final deal” was promoted as being closer than ever. Being a civil society activist, for a long time my focus was on the flaws of the agreements and their implementation. Yet, focusing on our daily tasks, we often fail to notice the positive outcomes of the process. The signing of the agreements by Belgrade and Pristina certainly led to the relaxation of relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo. These agreements made the cooperation with the “other side” acceptable. In earlier times, this cooperation was frowned upon.

 

The “Promoting and Communicating Benefits of the Kosovo-Serbia EU Facilitated Dialogue” project is funded by the European Union and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.