Decentralization in Kosovo II: Challenges of Serb majority ...

I. Introduction
Following the successful local elections of November 15, 2009, the dynamic of
decentralization and funcitonalization of new Serb majority municipalities will increase.
Graçanicë/Gračanica, Kllokot/Vrbovac and Ranilug, are three new created and
legitimized municipalities. These municipalities have their legal and legitimate leaderships
which match or surpass the parallel ones. Further, for the first time in two decades interethnic
issues and problems between Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians are passing
into a genuine platform of institutional divergence..
However, this process will not be without challenges. . The new municipal Kosovo Serb
leaderships face pressure from their community for rapid delivering of the promises they
made aiming at quick improvement of their lives. The new mayors understand this, and
they will be inclined to push for fast constitution of municipalities and the
implementation of municipal developmental and infrastructural projects.
The government of Kosovo, on the other hand, is working under the assumption that
years will pass before the new municipalities will be fully functional. If the full support
for the new municipalities is missing by the Government of Kosovo, it will endanger the
confidence of Serbs and their accommodation within Kosovo’s legal and institutional
framework
The existence of the parallel structures represents another hindering factor for the
functionality of the new municipalities. While the parallel structures deliver only financial
benefits to the Serbs, they cannot offer development. High salaries in the parallel
municipalities cannot match with Kosovo ones. However, the role of these structures
will diminish if the new municipalities begin providing tangible improvement of the
quality of life to the local Serbs.
A day after submitting the application for EU Membership in Stockholm, Serbia
committed 42 million Euros for parallel structures and is not showing any sign that will
change its policy towards participation of Serbian community in political institutions of
Kosovo. Moreover, Serbia’s path towards EU is widely opened, without being
specifically conditioned with a change of policy towards North of Kosovo. Despite the
wide spread belief that northern municipalities do not cooperate with Pristina, they keep
receiving regular financial assistance from the government of Kosovo.
In this paper, KIPRED will look into main challenges in all Serb municipalities in
Kosovo, will analyse the situation and will provide recommendations for actions and
policy change to relevant authorities, in order to make the decentralization process
successful.
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