Hovenier: Urgently start the negotiations for the establishment of the Association in accordance with the Constitution, not the “Republika Srpska”

According to the American ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, the talks on the establishment of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority should begin urgently. According to him, the association must be in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court of 2015. The USA, according to him, has never supported and will never support an arrangement like “Republika Srpska”.

Ambassador Hovenier, in a conversation with invited journalists at the headquarters of the US embassy in Pristina, where the director of the online newspaper Reporteri.net, Bekim Kabashi, was also present, said that both Kosovo and Serbia should implement the agreements signed in the dialogue process, but what, according to him, is urgent, is the initiation of talks on the establishment of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority.

“We believe that it is important that both the Government of Kosovo and the Government of Serbia implement the agreements they signed in the dialogue process. And this would include, which we believe has now become even more urgent, to urgently start talks on the establishment of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority. This is a request that we have made to them”, said Hovenier.

According to Ambassador Hovenier, what the USA is asking for is that the Association be established based on the decision of the Constitutional Court.

“Another thing that is not new. We have not asked the Government of Kosovo to establish an Association that is not in accordance with the Constitution of Kosovo and that is not in accordance with the 2015 decision of the Constitutional Court. These are reasonable parameters and we think they are also the right parameters. As I have said several times that we do not support and would not support an arrangement like “Republika Srpska”, said Hovenier, adding that now there is an urgency about this.

“This is something that has been identified by the [Serb] community as important to them, that they feel that they are participating in a way that is comfortable and acceptable to them, that they have their voices heard and their rights are fully protected. And we have been asking the various governments of Kosovo to implement this. And as I said, this has now taken on a renewed urgency”, said Ambassador Hovenier. /Reporteri.net/.