Prior to the Brussels Justice Agreement there were two judicial systems operating at the same time in the territory of Kosovo, one of the Serbian courts system and law and the one of Kosovo judiciary. The delayed implementation of the agreement officially began on 06 November 2017. This was immediately followed by political comments from both sides, mainly alluding on which side won or lost from this Agreement. Objective commenting on the advantages and disadvantages of the integration was, of course, limited.   

Six years have passed since the start of the implementation of the agreement on the integration of Serbian police structures in North Kosovo into the Kosovo Police (19 April 2013). Before this agreement that derives from the Brussels Dialogue, Serbian, Kosovar and international institutions overlapped in North Kosovo without formal boundaries, as an International Crisis Group’s report from 2011 reads:

The Kosovo-Serbia technical dialogue, facilitated by the EU, started in Brussels in March 2011. One of the first topics raised in this process was that of the customs stamps. Kosovo insisted that Serbia should recognize Kosovo’s stamps, thus allowing the export of goods to Serbia and the use of its territory as a transit for the goods aiming the European market and beyond. On the other hand, Serbia insisted for Kosovo to return the “old stamps” – the UNMIK stamps.

Steinar Bryn (b. 1954) has graduated from the University of Wisconsin (BA, MA) and obtained a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.

Before the Brussels Agreements, Kosovo and Serbia were hermetically closed, two different systems of government, resembling totalitarian states with walls between them. Today, there is invisible, but important communication.

I am a Prosecutor at the Basic Court of Mitrovica. I live in North Mitrovica together with my family. Since 1994, I have worked for the Serbian judiciary as a trainee, then an expert associate, and later on as a prosecutor.

The agreements resulting from the Brussels Dialogue managed to positively affect the lives of people in Kosovo, despite the fact that the public was aggravated when the “final deal” was promoted as being closer than ever.