Kosova through “Acquis Communautaire” obligations to standardize the Eu laws and standards on the Country

  

Interview with The head of French Office in Prishtina, Thierry Reinard,

Journalists: Fazli Rrezja & Fisnik Musa

The head of French Office in Prishtina, Thierry Reinard, said that except Russia, we are to convince other Security Council members for new resolution approval for Kosova. Meanwhile, if Russia threatens with a veto, he said that this could affect new problems. In an interview for news agency “Kosovanews”, the head of French Office says if Kosova’s Institutions take unilateral decisions, they could face legal problems, and this is obviously the reason why he urges for new resolution approval for Kosova, which would repeal the actual 1244 resolution. Nevertheless, he doesn’t mention France’s next step if the resolution wouldn’t be approved at the SC, since, as he says, “doesn’t know the opinion of France recent elected president.

 

 

France has sponsored the draft –resolution for Kosova together with the U.S.A., on the same time Russia has proposed too a resolution that suggests to continue with the negotiation process. Do you expect whether there could be a compromise between these two proposals?

 

Thierry Reinard: As far as I know, there is only one draft – resolution at the Security Council, presented last Friday by the U.S.A. and other Western countries. It is very interesting since Germany as a Quint member has assisted on the creation of this document. According to the information that I received from New York, this is the only existing draft-resolution on the table of the Security Council. During the Contact Group meeting held time before, Russia had presented a so-called list of “the main elements that must be included in the resolution”. This is the only thing that Russia did, and they didn’t propose any official project yet concerning the draft presented by us.

 

Russia has warned that it will veto if the resolution is based on the Ahtisaari plan, how can this situation be avoided?

 

Thierry Reinard: Russian position is still unclear, perhaps we shall know more after two important meetings in Moscow. The first meeting is between the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the second with the German foreign minister, Steinmeier, which actually is in Russia in order to prepare the EU – Russia summit, scheduled for May, 18 in Samara (Russia).

 

 

 

Kosova’s issue will be one of the main topics to be discussed during these two meetings, Putin – Rice and Putin – Steinmeier, so I don’t know yet what results are going to be reached at. Until now, Russia didn’t threaten officially whether is going to use the right of veto or not. It was mentioned during declarations of Russian vice-minister for Foreign Affairs, Titov and also by the Russian ambassador at the Security Council, Churkin. In this context is said and mentioned the use of the veto, nevertheless, at the moment we didn’t hear officially any use of veto. We have the text and we urge all Security Council members to be positioned and to analyze it point by point… and when there’s no deal, we put it in brackets. This is an exercise that  is usually used at the SC, and we are to begin very soon to identify the articles proposed by Ahtisaari, when Russia admits to repeal resolution 1244.

 

 

 

At the moment I am not able to say what is going to happen. What we are calling the whole world and particularly the temporal SC members, like South Africa ,Indonesia, Congo, Qatar, Peru, Panama, is that these countries to support the resolution. These African and Latin American countries aren’t informed properly about the situation in Kosova. We have urged the same countries together with our U.S. and EU colleagues for support, and we have also showed them why we do support this draft-resolution and that why we thought Kosova’s status must be addressed very soon.

 

Is France ready to recognize independence of Kosova, if it doesn’t pass in the SC?

 

Thierry Reinard: At the moment we don’t want anything like that to happen. You know that it has been mentioned by different countries of EU that this will cause legal problems. We need to understand that we urgently need a new resolution mainly because resolution 1244 has to be changed since this resolution does not allow Kosova to declare its independence. There will be legal conflicts if you declare your independence. It will really present a problem for us, that’s why I cannot say what our new president thinks. We don’t have a certain opinion about this problem, because we are a part of EU, and if we declare our opinion, we could cause problems within the EU.

 

Taking in consideration the will of majority of Kosova and also the reactions of some countries, particularly of Russia, how close to his independence is Kosova today?

 

Thierry Reinard: It depends by your leadership to decide. It will not depend whether Kosova wants to be independent or not. We know the will of people of Kosova and of its leadership. We think that the time has come for Kosova status to be resolved. We think that the main reason why we support a very soon solution in accordance with Ahtisaari plan, is that we want to close this darken chapter of ex Yugoslavia separation, and we want to go ahead through the stabilization of Western Balkans, because we want to work in accordance with European agenda, not only for Kosova, but also for Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania. The problem of Kosova is being blocking yet the process inside Western Balkans, that’s why it must be resolved.

 

If Russia uses veto in the SC, what is going to happen with the plan of chief negotiator, Martti Ahtisaari?

 

Thierry Reinard: This is a huge problem, as I mentioned before, Russia didn’t threaten with the use of veto also after the SC delegation visit in Kosova.

 

Ambassadors have evaluated it as a very useful mission, particularly, those who knew about the situation here. They have also seen that the stand of the parties involved in the conflict, have been sufficiently contradictory and there wasn’t any chance to proximate their stands. The second result of this mission is that they have also evaluated that status – quo, which is present since 1999, is not a proper solution. This is obviously what Ahtisaari emphasizes in his report. The members of Quint agree too with this position of ambassadors. We hope that to persuade, apart of Russia, other members too, since we know that it is too difficult to persuade Russia. We think that at the moment there are 14 votes in favor of the resolution at the SC, meanwhile, regarding to Russia, personally, I do think that we are going to have problems if it vetoes. CS usually is committed to reach a consensus. Different European leaders are optimistic for reaching of a compromise with Russia, maybe not during this month, but at least until June, because we want this issue to be resolved before summer holidays, since, during four months of Kosova’s transition period, a much-intensified agenda new process will start.

 

How Kosova’s Institutions are prepared for the transition phase?

 

Thierry Reinard: I think that they must know that they have a lot of work to do. It is important what we do think about the majority leaders which are in power now, are saving the unity of the working groups, comprised by local and international authorities.

 

We do know that there are still problems for raising the capacities since there are capacity lacks at Kosova’s administration. AER, BE, USAID, and all other international donators, are being assisted in the development of these governmental capacities here. It is going to be a much intensified four monthly agenda, where, the legal aspects of the Ahtisaari plan must be clearly implemented, especially during the summer months, but we do believe that they are to do it since they are very committed.

 

Belgrade insists to continue with a new negotiation phase. By your point of view, is there any place for new talks between Prishtina and Belgrade, taking in consideration their very contradictory stands?

 

Thierry Reinard: We don’t think that there are to be developed new negotiations, since the result of Ahtisaari plan came as a result of a long and difficult negotiation process. Serbia’s stand was Kosova to have autonomy and this is not a know position for the opinion..

 

Does International Community have any plan “B”, and what will happen if the situation in Kosova gets worse?

 

Thierry Reinard: No, because we (KFOR and UNMIK) have made a very large plan and they are also prepared for any possible violence, even though there are no indications for such a thing by none of parties. The new EU mission is going to bring new members in the area of policy, justice, and customs. We are prepared for everything that could happen here.

 

The future EU presence in Kosova! Does it mean that Kosovar institutions aren’t able yet to take “the wheel on their hands to lead the state?

 

Tierry Reinard: In his plan, Ahtisaari mentions that Kosovans are going to have the responsibility for leading Kosova in the new system. The International Civilian Office in Kosova will be in charge for supervising the implementation of the status agreement. Also, its role is to supervise whether the status agreement is being respected or not, and also they are going to be here to acquire the minority rights, particularly of the serbs. Other roles that EU is going to have in Kosova is the supervision of the judicial system too, and also the fight against organized crime. The EU role is totally different by resolution 1244.

 

And finally, how far is Kosova for being integrated at the EU?

 

Thierry Reinard: It depends on you, from standards, and also from actuating plan of the European Partnership. The best thing is that we have combined old UNMIK standards with those of the European integration, dated from 2003-2004, and the whole standards, 109 codes out of them to be realized, and the people didn’t know exactly the meaning of the same ones. So, all standards are combined at the EU agenda. Kosova and its leadership with EU have decided to implement so-called Actuating Plan of European Partnership, which is too real for Kosova to present the legislation. This is called as “Acquis Communautaire” and in the case of Kosova it means “obligations to standardize the laws and EU standards on the country.

 

During the next years, we are going to substitute the Conducting Mechanism of Stabilization – Association with European Partnership Actuating Plan, which will lead all Kosova’s legislation to the European existing standards. You are lucky in Kosova, because of UNMIK presence here since 1999. This was a part of the existent “Acquis Communautaire”, because the UNMIK rules have been totally based on EU system. You are in a very favorable position, in comparison with other countries, when they did start to be integrated at the EU. This is going to take time, and it all depends how long will take the negotiations for Stabilization – Association. You are beyond entering the EU house, you are not so far from, and you are also trying to knock on EU doors.