Petkovic: We discussed Community statute, energy, missing persons issue

BRUSSELS - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said Thursday's round of the Brussels dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina had addressed work on a statute of a Community of Serb Municipalities as the first concrete step towards establishing the Community, which he noted was overdue for over ten years, and added that the discussions would be continued.

Speaking to reporters after meetings in Brussels, Petkovic said he was grateful to experts who were a part of Belgrade's delegation as they were a proof of Belgrade's responsible approach to dialogue.

"They spoke clearly about all aspect of a draft statute, especially the section relating to executive powers, above all, to spatial planning, health care, education and economic development, which would be financed by Belgrade," Petkovic said.

He said energy and the issue of missing persons had been on the agenda as well and that he expected progress in that regard.

"Discussions on these topics were conducted with (EU special envoy Miroslav) Lajcak's team, as well as with EU experts. I expect that we will continue the discussions in the period to come. The statute is very important because it represents the backbone of the Community of Serb Municipalities and everything must be in line with agreements from 2013 and 2015. After more than five hours of discussions that we had in Brussels today, we are going home with the belief that we can make progress on normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina through dialogue and compromise solutions," Petkovic said.

He noted that Belgrade was the committed party in the dialogue and that it was absolutely committed to peace and stability.

"That is why it is important for us to find solutions through dialogue to ensure better life to Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija because we highlighted during these discussions the gravity of the situation and Albin Kurti's escalatory behaviour faced by our people both north and south of the Ibar River, which, first and foremost, puts in question the Kosovo-Metohija Serbs' survival, fundamental human rights and right to live," he said.

Petkovic added that he had also noted the significance of holding the December 17 Serbian elections in Kosovo-Metohija, too, and that the situation in the north of the province, where illegal ethnic Albanian mayors are in charge of four Serb municipalities, was unsustainable.