The Kosovo Democratic League and the ‘Vetevendosje’ Movement, both opposition parties, said on Monday that they would not be held to ransom by Serb MPs who have threatened to abstain in a crucial vote next week on constitutional changes to establish a Kosovo army if they don’t get agreement on future minority representation.

Ismet Beqiri, an MP from the Kosovo Democratic League, LDK, said on Monday that “these are two different issues which cannot be linked to each other”.

“One thing is sure: the LDK will not under any circumstances vote for the maintenance of reserved seats for minorities,” he told reporters.

The Kosovo parliament is to vote on the transformation of the current Kosovo Security Forces into the Kosovo Armed Forces next week, but representatives of the Serb minority have announced they will abstain if they are not granted reserved seats in parliament for another four years.

Since 2008, the Kosovo parliament has had 20 seats guaranteed for minority communities.

Of those 20, ten seats were guaranteed for Kosovo Serbs, while the others were guaranteed for the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Bosniak, Turkish and Gorani communities. Any seats won through elections were granted in addition to these seats.

But according to the 2007 plan for the status of Kosovo drawn up by UN special envoy Marti Ahtisaari, this is to be abandoned after the next parliamentary elections.

Political parties representing the Kosovo Serb community, the Ahtisaari plan said, “shall have the total number of seats won through the open election, with a minimum ten seats guaranteed if the number of seats won is less than ten”.

However the ruling Kosovo Democratic Party of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci insists the current practice of reserved seats should be extended. He has also announced constitutional changes which would give Montenegrins and Croats the status of minorities.

Visar Ymeri from the nationalist ‘Vetevendosje’ Movement said that it seemed that Thaci “has agreed in Brussels to maintain reserved seats and now he is trying to get it through parliament”.

Constitutional changes to enable the establishment of the Kosovo Armed Forces need to be voted through by a two-thirds majority, meaning that most minority MPs need to back the changes too.

The Kosovo Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, said it would accept the conditions put forward by the Serbs in order to ensure that the Kosovo Armed Forces were established.

“Two or three more Serbs in the make-up of the future parliament are an acceptable price for the transformation of the Kosovo Security Forces into the Kosovo Armed Forces,” said Ardian Gjini of the AAK.