Introduction The accommodation of minorities in societies emerging form ethnic conflicts is a priority for sustainable peace building. A concept of decentralization is among power-sharing forms of settling disputes between antagonistic parts of societies. Because of tragic history that Kosovo faced in the 90's, international community sought to implement the concept of decentralization which started in 2002. After the declaration of independence, Kosovo authorities legally committed themselves that, in accordance with the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement(2007), decentralization would become as country priority policy for further peace-building in Kosovo. However, the Serbian community, which consists of less than 5% of overall Kosovo population, was skeptic on the initiative because of their political expectations of being part of Serbia. This behavior postponed the establishment of new municipalities – to be achieved later in three phases. Nowadays, Kosovo is composed by 38 municipalities; ten of them governed by the Serbian community. Territorially, it means that more than 25% of municipalities are governed by minorities(10 municipalities governed by Serbs and 1 municipality by Turks). Four north Kosovo municipalities are still hesitating on following the Kosovo legislation, even though since the moment of reaching an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on the Comprehensive Normalizations of Relations, also known as the Brussels Agreement, there is some progress that has been done. Increasing their demands by creation of the Association/Community of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo, ASMK/CSMK, has the intention to justify“the elimination the uncertainty, distrust and fear toward Kosovo institutions”. The establishment of ASMK, as a product coming from the long time negotiations, is seen by EU as an instrument in enabling successful integration and reducing inter-ethnic tensions of/in the northern part of Kosovo. However, Albanians remain skeptical- fearing that this mechanism will serve as a catalyst for a future Republika Srpska II – enabling to increasing the Serbia's influence in Kosovo's matters. Through the ASMK/CSMK, Belgrade will try to conduct an audit of current public spending, control employment and political behavior in Serbian institutions in Kosovo. As it appears, the process of decentralization and territorial reformation in Kosovo used to be an intermediate step toward creation of the newly“intermediate institution” between central and local government level- the Association/Community of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo, an untold autonomy of the Serbs within Kosovo. If President's Ahtisaari Plan was a compromise on seeking international subjectively for newly created state of Kosovo, the process of decentralization and later on ASM/CSM is becoming the price for eventual approval of Kosovo independence by Serbia.
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The role of decentralization on security improvement and peace-building in Kosovo
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