Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Johannes Hahn in Brussels. Photo by Beta

Isa Mustafa and Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Ministers of Kosovo and Serbia, signed an agreement on the judiciary in Brussels, as the dialogue on normalising relations between Belgrade and Pristina resumed following a ten-month standstill.

The two leaders closed “a critical chapter of the implementation of the Brussels Agreement that will substantially improve lives of people on the ground,” Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative, wrote in a statement.

Mustafa said the agreement would enable the justice system to operate over the entire territory of Kosovo.

Vucic stated that the agreement included the two sides agreeing on the ethnic structure of judges and prosecutors in northern Kosovo. The president of the court in Serb-populated northern Mitrovica would be a Serb, he explained.

According to the agreement, the court, which covers seven municipalities – including the Serb-majority municipalities of North Mitrovica, Leposavic and Zubin Potok – would have nine Albanian and nine Serbian prosecutors.

“The talks were tough, but I think we got the maximum in the given circumstances,” Vucic said.

Mogherini stated that Vucic and Mustafa had held a comprehensive discussion on the full spectrum of issues in the EU-led dialogue and assessed the remaining work.

“The two Prime Ministers exchanged views on the way forward and confirmed their commitment to continue to make progress in the normalisation of relations,” she stated.

Following the meeting, Mustafa said the priority now was “the undoing of the [Serbian-run] parallel structures in the north”, starting with the Civil Protection Forces.

These comprise ethnic Serbian police in northern Kosovo responsible to the Serbian Interior Ministry.

Pristina considers them a threat to its sovereignty in the north. Under an earlier agreement reached in Brussels on police, about 500 Serb policeman have joined the Kosovo Police – a step towards the integration of these forces in the Kosovo structures.

Serbia’s Prime Minister, on the other hand, said the Civil Protection Force was not the priority but the future of the Trepca mine – a subject of hot dispute between the two governments – and the planned establishment in Kosovo of an Association of Serbian Municipalities with autonomous powers.

The agreement on the judiciary is thought to be a keystone for the creation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities.

The latest negotiations in Brussels were the first to be held since March 2014. The high-level talks halted for ten months, mainly because Kosovo was experiencing political turmoil over the formation of a new government following snap elections last June. However, talks on a technical level continued.

Supporters of the opposition Vetevendosje [Self-Determination Movement] party in Kosovo staged a small protest in Brussels ahead of the Mustafa-Vucic meeting against the continuation of EU-facilitated talks.

The protesters showed dissatisfaction with messages such as “Sovereignty is non-negotiable!” and “Stop tolerance towards Serbian expansion!”

Serbia does not recognise the independence of its former province. However Serbia and Kosovo signed an agreement on the “normalisation” of relations in April 2013 in Brussels.

Belgrade obtained EU candidate status in March 2012, but talks on membership have not started yet, as one of the main conditions for the opening of the talks is to implement the Brussels agreement in full.

Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner for regional policy, told the Belgrade-based CorD Magazine on February 2 that “all existing commitments” under the agreement need to be implemented before Serbia’s EU talks may open.