On 6 May, the Gorani community traditionally gathers on the hills and in the villages of the Gora region to celebrate the beginning of spring. This day is considered the national holiday of the Gorani and has been recognised as a memorial day by Kosovo Law.

Ahead of the memorial day, a delegation of the Gora Community Network was received for a brief meeting with PM Isa Mustafa. Besides a representative of the Consultative Council for Communities within the Office of the President, however, no official representative of the Kosovo government or the local municipality of Dragash/Dragaš attended the 6 May festivities. This is a missed opportunity for the Kosovo institutions, as it would have been a strong symbolic gesture that the government is actually concerned about the difficult position of the Gorani community in Kosovo.

A noted guest at the festivities was Serbian Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who opened two employment offices in the area. Vulin’s visit symbolizes the continuing efforts of the Serbian Government to maintain strong links with the Gorani community. Serb politicians have repeatedly propagated the establishment of the current parallel Municipality of Gora within the Kosovo system as well as its subsequent inclusion in the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities. Many members of the Gorani community support this move, as it would guarantee the continued functioning of Serbian institutions while allowing them to enter into more direct cooperation with the central Kosovo institutions.

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On 4 May, a Kosovo Serbian inhabitant of the village Pasjane/Pasjan in the municipality of Parteš/Partesh, was reported to have been stabbed by two Kosovo Albanian inhabitants of the neighbouring village of Vllashticë/Vlaštica in what appears to be a case of road rage. Luckily, the victim is not in danger and is recovering from his wounds. The Kosovo Police has reacted swiftly and identified and arrested the two suspected attackers. Upon investigation, the police issued a statement reporting that the incident happened following a car accident during an overtaking maneuver, which resulted in verbal aggression and a subsequent fight. The case is now at the Municipal Court of Gjilan/Gnjilane where the perpetrators are accused of attempted murder.

This Political Update looks into the reactions of politicians and relevant institutions surrounding the question of ethnic motives behind the incident.

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May 4th marked the end of a deadlock between Kosovo’s four Serb-majority northern municipalities and the central government on the status of the municipal budgets in Zveçan/Zvečan, Zubin Potok, Leposaviq/Leposavić and Mitrovicë/Mitrovica North. The stalemate began on February 28th, after the municipalities failed to reach an agreement regarding the exact amount to be allocated to each municipality by the central government as part of the 2015 Kosovo budget. After prolonged discussions and following another round of meetings within the Brussels dialogue, the municipal budgets were modified to be in line with the legal framework and in accordance with the budgets designed by the central government. This political update presents an overview of the causes of the stalemate, incorporating arguments from both sides of the debate, and provides several recommendations on how to avoid similar political deadlocks in the future.

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In light of the recent outburst of violence in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, ECMI Kosovo affirms its position that it is of imperative importance that all incidents are examined individually by the relevant authorities, speedily and transparently, to prevent further incidents and increase the faith of all citizens in the rule of law. As so often happens, the incidents have quickly been interpreted to be ethnically motivated, although there are no sound grounds to reach such conclusions.

This Political Analysis looks into all the recent incidents and the reactions by politicians and relevant institutions surrounding the question of ethnic motives behind the incident.

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Although the agreement on the formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities leaves plenty of room for diverging interpretations, the discussions on the competencies and structure of the Association have ignored the few solid legal provisions provided in the Brussels Agreement of 19 April 2013.

In this Political Analysis, we examine the legal framework on inter-municipal cooperation that is referred to in the Agreement. In particular, we look in more detail at the legal provisions related to inter-municipal partnerships and direct cooperation with the Republic of Serbia and present the legal maximums for the structure and competencies of the Association within the Kosovo law.

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The debates surrounding the establishment of the Association and the implementation of the Brussels Agreements relating to the general integration of the Serb community in Kosovo are leading to an increasingly worrisome political deadlock along fixed Albanian–Serb ethnic lines. This Political Analysis, which is the second in a series that wants to add content to the discussion about the Community, in line with ECMI Kosovo’s mission and track record of dealing with complex ethnic issues in Kosovo over the years, warns against such a narrow Albanian–Serb understanding of Kosovo society and critically assesses the ethnically-based understanding of the Association.

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