A system of strong local self-governance formed one of the two core elements in the so-called Ahtisaari Plan that became an integral part of the Kosovo constitutional order, aimed at providing a sustainable democratic solution for the interethnic conflicts in and around Kosovo. Failure to find agreement within the UN framework on the Ahtisaari Plan and its alternative introduction through Kosovo’s declaration of independence set in motion a vicious circle of the non-integration of Kosovo Serbs and the undermining of local self-governance from within Kosovo. The accelerated 2008 implementation of the Ahtisaari package over a period of 120 days resulted in substantial weaknesses and shortcomings in the basic, systemic laws regulating local self-governance. The political impossibility to change those laws due to the double-majority vote integrated into the Ahtisaari system of ethnic protection mechanisms forced lawmakers to adapt the legislative framework through other laws and regulations. That approach, however, created entry points for central governments to undermine and limit local self-governance, by usurping municipal competencies. Besides those derogations from Ahtisaari’s model of local self-governance, Kosovo never put in place a full-fledged system of fiscal decentralization, a crucial weak spot in Ahtisaari’s Plan.
The chosen method of introducing the Ahtisaari proposal led to a geographical divide in the (non-) implementation of the system of strong local self-governance in the majority Serb-inhabited parts of Kosovo. Its implementation in the six municipalities south of the Ibar river from 2008 onward presented a substantial success. The four municipalities located north of the Ibar remained outside the Ahtisaari and Kosovo state system. Municipalities continued to function under the Serbian state system, yet at the same time represented a legal twilight zone that developed into hybrid municipal systems. The EU-led political dialogue with its first, April 2013 agreement enabled important first steps in bridging the Kosovo Serb integration divide, and Ahtisaari implementation gap in the north with the first local elections taking place, and municipalities being established under the Kosovo system. The failure of the dialogue to strategically follow through on its initial success brought a halt to the process of integration and transition of municipal institutions from the Serbian to the Kosovo system. Instead, a Frankenstein hybrid system of municipal parallelism and a corrupt patronage system headed by an evolving de facto one-party system-organized crime nexus emerged. At the same time, establishment of a so-called Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities (ASM), a vaguely defined body of intermunicipal cooperation and joint management of municipal functions formed by the ten Serb-majority Kosovo municipalities included in the April Agreement, was left blocked, leaving unanswered the question of whether the ASM represents a sort of Ahtisaari plus (completing integration) or Ahtisaari minus (undermining the system of local self-governance). This fundamental deviation of municipal governance from the original dialogue path and its aims led the majority-Serb municipalities further away from the local self-governance basis of the Ahtisaari plan. The resignation of Serb mayors and councilors in the four northern municipalities in 2022 marked the dismantling of the already limited dialogue achievements in the field of local self-governance.
To return Kosovo on a path towards a sustainable multiethnic, democracy as conceptualized by Ahtisaari, a profound, systematic and comprehensive transformation of the system of strong local self-governance is required. Ultimately, this can only happen within the strategic dialogue framework of a final, comprehensive agreement. Such a fix of Kosovo’s system of strong local self-governance should be organized in a broadly inclusive and participatory manner involving political stakeholders, domestic and international local self-governance experts and civil society.
The entire publication can be found HERE.
