The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that the issue of establishing the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority can be addressed within an eventual agreement for the full normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Kurti’s comments, made on January 12 during a visit to Austria, come a day after a senior American official said that the Association is an urgent matter and asked Kosovo to give proposals regarding the establishment of the Association.

The senior advisor of the US Department of State, Derek Chollet, said during a visit to Prishtina, that Kosovo “must fulfill all commitments within the dialogue, including the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority”.

Kurti, however, said that an ethnic association is against the spirit of the Kosovo Constitution.

“We are at a moment when we are talking and discussing an agreement on the complete normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and only there can the issue of the Association be addressed. However, the Constitution of Kosovo, which has given many privileges to the Serbian minority and which was drafted by Ahtisaari and Albert Rohan, in its spirit does not allow mono-ethnic association. The first sentence of that plan, of that solution that was drafted by Ahtisaari and Rohan, says that Kosovo should be a multi-ethnic society”, said Kurti, referring to the so-called Ahtisaari Plan, which preceded the declaration of Kosovo’s independence in 2008.

“It means, monoethnic associations or institutions are not in the spirit of that plan or our Constitution. However, we offer better and greater guarantees and rights to all minorities or non-majority communities in Kosovo and I am very committed to this. But without underestimating the constitutionality of our country”, Kurti added.