The issue of the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church, i.e. the Diocese of Raško-Prizren (ERP) in Kosovo, is a topic that is not discussed much in the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, but it is unlikely that even an agreement would be accepted if the SPC was strongly against it.
Shortly after the meeting of the Five from the West and Aleksandar Vučić, words came from the Church that it is a known, clear and unequivocal position that Kosovo and Metohija are an integral and inalienable part of Serbia and that its preservation within the borders of Serbia is a constitutional obligation and imperative for both the Church and for the state.
Radio Free Europe published the text of the Franco-German proposal on Kosovo and Metohija stating that it also foresees "formalizing the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and providing a strong level of protection to Serbian religious and cultural heritage and religious objects, in accordance with existing European models."
Milica Andrić Rakić from the non-governmental organization New Social Initiatives from Kosovska Mitrovica believes that the proposal is more about a principled idea, that much is still open and that both parties are expected to contribute to the concretization of these issues.
"According to what Vljosa Osmani said, we know that they requested additional explanations regarding the part of the text concerning the rights of the SPC and the rights of the Serbian minority. For the Government of Kosovo, these are alarming lines."
Milica Rakić Andrić assumes that the Franco-German proposal, in this aspect, is similar to the Washington Agreement, so the Government of Kosovo would be called upon to respect its own decisions and the decisions of its courts.
"SPC monks often complain that not all the provisions of annex five of Ahtisaari's plan, which refers to religious freedoms, are really incorporated into the Law on Religious Freedoms, so perhaps this is seen as a good opportunity to change the Law with amendments," says Rakić Andrić.
According to her, a more optimistic scenario would imply greater self-government in the areas of special protected zones, which are located mainly around Serbian monasteries, but this is not talked about much.
On the other hand, the international community undoubtedly sees the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church as an important topic, as evidenced by the meetings of Patriarch Porphyry with the British Prime Minister's Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Stuart Peach, the EU Special Representative for the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Matthew Palmer, and the EU Special Representative for the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina's Miroslav Lajcak.
In June of last year, the NGO New Social Initiative published the research "A new apple of discord: the SPC in the dialogue on normalization", whose author is Milica Rakić Andrić, and which deals with the likelihood of including the issue of the status of the SPC in the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, the acceptability different models of the eventual participation of Church representatives and the importance of the Church's involvement for the acceptability of the agreement in the Serbian public.
"For the wider community in Serbia, but especially for the Serbian community in Kosovo, it is important that the SPC be part of the comprehensive agreement on normalization," says Andrić Rakić.
"The Diocese of Raško-Prizren has a strong foothold in the community and its influence on how the agreement will be viewed is great," she adds.
In this sense, in order for the agreement to be accepted in Serbia, it is important that the Church participates in it in some way. On the other hand, such a thing is hardly acceptable for the Kosovo authorities, and the topic is less popular even since the formation of the ZSO.
"In that case, there would be strong resistance from the current Government of Kosovo, which otherwise delegitimizes the demands of the Serbian community, saying either that these are the demands of official Belgrade or that Russia wants to influence the region in this way." For the most part, none of the demands of the Serbian community are accepted."
In what way is the possible participation of the Church in the negotiations seen?
"The Serbian community would like the Church to participate directly, or more precisely, for its representatives to be part of the official delegation. However, ERP representatives and those close to them believe that a clear distinction between church and secular authorities should be maintained, which means that they would not want to be in the official delegation, but to have direct contacts with Miroslav Lajček's technical team."
The third type would imply not involving the Church in the negotiations, which is acceptable to a part of the Albanian public.
In the conclusion of the aforementioned research, it is stated: "Official political representatives of the Serbs in Kosovo have been seen many times in the recent past as not up to crisis situations, not united, not independent, but also alienated from the community, which is why their guarantees for a possible agreement do not carry enough weight." However, the reputation of the SPC in the Kosovo public may contribute to the idea of including its representatives in the negotiations, in any way creating a new insurmountable obstacle in the negotiations (...) regardless of how the SPC uses its influence, it is an actor that cannot be bypassed."
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