Drecun: Payment transactions termination biggest threat to Kosovo Serbs yet

BELGRADE - Pristina's termination of payment transactions with central Serbia is perhaps the biggest threat to the survival of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs yet, head of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija Milovan Drecun told Tanjug in a comment on a decision by Pristina to make the euro the only currency for cash transactions and payment transactions.

Without financial support from Belgrade, you cannot count on the Serbs being able to survive in Kosovo-Metohija, Drecun said, adding that the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija alone was providing over 100 mln euros to the Serb community in the province every year.

He said Pristina was demonstrating a "clear intent to make it impossible for Serbs to live a normal life in Kosovo-Metohija and survive there."

Drecun said he believed Serbia would succeed in alleviating the measure through international activities or find a solution to be able to continue to pay salaries, pensions and welfare benefits to the community and fund the local economy, education and health care service.

"This will now depend on whether the assessment of the leading Western countries is to allow (Pristina's PM Albin) Kurti to implement that measure and, by pressuring the Serbs, in fact, pressure Belgrade into being more relenting when it comes to accepting the proposed French-German agreement, or the West will realise this is a boundary that, if crossed, can destroy dialogue completely and destabilise the situation further," Drecun said.