Petkovic: Concrete steps to Community discussed for first time

BRUSSELS - Speaking to reporters in Brussels after Tuesday's trilateral meeting of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Belgrade's chief negotiator Petar Petkovic said the most concrete steps to establishing of a Community of Serb Municipalities had been discussed for the first time in years and that a declaration on missing persons had been agreed.

The discussions were long and difficult, but the Serbian side demonstrated constructiveness and respect of all its commitments up to its clearly stated red lines, Petkovic said after meeting with Pristina's chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi and EU special envoy Miroslav Lajcak.

"It is important for us to hold discussions because that is the only way to protect peace and Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, as well as to have normalisation of relations, because that is how we can preserve stability in the Western Balkans. We discussed ways to continue the implementation process and the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities because it is the first commitment agreed in Ohrid, and today was the first time we discussed in trilateral dialogue the most concrete steps to forming a Community of Serb Municipalities and what the steering team needs to do under agreements from 2013 and 2015, the first step being the presentation of the statute prepared by the steering team as part of high-level dialogue," Petkovic said.

He noted that a declaration on missing persons had been agreed and would be adopted at a high-level meeting.

"We were especially careful with all the terminology and we did not accept the term mentioned in the convention on enforced disappearances so that we do not endanger Serbia's interests," Petkovic said.

He said energy had been discussed as well and that discussions with Pristina's power company would be continued to address distribution services, but added that vehicle licence plates had been addressed, too.

"That is when I pointed out all the violations by Pristina in that regard, and violations of agreements from 2021 and 2022. We came out with constructive proposals that were rejected by Pristina," Petkovic said, adding that the most important thing was to resolve everything peacefully and that stopping ambulances and vehicles was not the solution.

He concluded that discussions on the issue had primarily been with Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and their security in mind.

"We also discussed attacks. In any case, it was a significant series of questions, we will continue to talk and that is the only way to move forward," said Petkovic, who also heads the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija.