Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Agreement on establishment of Community of Serbian Municipalities reached

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić announced tonight that four agreements have been signed between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels, on the Community of Serbian Municipalities, energy, telecommunications and the bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica, and assessed them as good and warranting safety and endurance of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

"Community of Serbian Municipalities is established tonight. The CSM will have broad powers, a president and vice president, an assembly, a council, a coat of arms, flag, and would be able to receive funding from Serbia, and it is unambiguously stated that Serbia would have this right,” Vučić underlined in his statement to the RTS.

Vučić said that the Serbian delegation did an excellent job and that all agreements will be made available to the public.

He said that the Serbian delegation spend the whole day talking to the EU facilitators and only saw the Kosovo Albanian delegation at the end of the day.

“As to Telekom, some people have forgotten to mention that, when making a phone call to Central Serbia, Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija would continue to dial only the city code, namely 011, 018 or 034, and the other way around, only dial 028 when phoning Kosovska Mitrovica.”

Vučić said that this was the first time after 1999 that we managed to legalize our position and the first time that the world recognizes Serbian telecommunications company, and for the first time we have the supplier and trader in electric power.

“It would be a subsidiary of the Electric Power Industry of Serbia”, Vučić said.

No agreement has been made on the corporate-distribution system, Vučić said, adding that Priština wrote that in their view those assets belong to Kosovo, and right under that “we added that it was the property of the Republic of Serbia in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia".

Therefore I really think that we defended all our interests very successfully.

As to the bridge on the Ibar River, our people need not worry.

They wanted to open for traffic the Kralja Petra Street, and this street will be reconstructed into a pedestrian area in line with the decisions undersigned today, Vučić specified.

“They wanted to drive vehicles and trucks through the Kralja Petra Street, and that would not be possible. The street will become a pedestrian zone which we will construct”, Vučić said.

These things are usually very hard given that we operate within frameworks outlined in 1999 or in 2008, and for us those were catastrophic, but I am not the bearer of bad news.

Vučić specified that discussions on energy to be held in the future would be difficult, and added that no agreement has been reached on the distribution system operator, and that this is stated in the agreement.

"As far as Serbia is concerned, we'll implement everything and I think that our people have reasons to be pleased," the Prime Minister said and stressed that the CSM is established as of tonight.

This signals another great thing for the entire country, and that it is the opening of chapters in the EU negotiations, as there is nothing standing in the way any longer.

"Serbia's European path is open and, given the framework within which we operated, I think we did better and achieved more than we expected," he said.

Asked about the relevance of the upcoming conference in Vienna to the closure of agreements, Vučić said that earlier he made a promise not to undersign that the fixed assets in electric power industry belong to Kosovo no matter what happens.

"I will not and did not sign that," Vučić said, adding that the next round of talks in Brussels have not been scheduled.

I am not dissatisfied with our achievements and look forward to visiting our people in Kosovo and Metohija in September, whether before or after my visit to the USA, but I intend to spend two days there in order to visit all 10 municipalities members of CSM - and congratulate our people on the formation of at the CSM in Kosovo and Metohija.”

Vučić assessed the four agreements made in Brussels as good for Serbia and the Serbian people and that we achieved everything that the Serbian delegation had insisted upon.

He told the press that he is primarily satisfied with the fact that the Community of Serbian Municipalities is established, and stressed that the agreement mentions the Law on civil servants (which Priština opposed).

“We made good agreements for our people. What we insisted on we managed to achieve by our persistence. Of course there will be much hardship in our negotiations concerning the CSM Statute, but the initialing papers today constitutes foundation and paves the way to the creation of CSM, with its own President and Deputy President, Assembly and Board, coat of arms and a flag”, Vučić told the press in Brussels.

The Prime Minister reiterated that initialing of four agreements today paves the way to the faster opening of chapters and promotes Serbia’s accession to the EU.

"We are satisfied, we have initialed all four agreements. I think that, within this framework, we have good news for our people in Kosovo and Metohija and good news for all citizens from Serbia. I congratulate our people in Kosovo and Metohija," Vučić said.