Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Đurić: On protection of property and SOC status in Brussels

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić, stated today that, in the resumption of negotiations with Priština in Brussels, Belgrade wishes to discuss the protection of Serbian property in the province, status of the Serbian Orthodox Church, along with a range of other topics.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić recently announced that talks between Belgrade and Priština would resume on January 27.

“We wish to talk about how to protect our property, and this must be on the agenda”, Đurić told TV Pink.

According to Đurić, the issue of the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija must be on the agenda, because the church must be able to operate smoothly.

“There is also a range of other topics we proposed, for example, we want to provide simpler and normal traffic between Kosovo and Metohija and Serbia Proper”, Đurić said adding that, if it was only up to Belgrade, there would be no delays at the administrative line.

He stressed the importance of normalization of the traffic because goods and products from Serbia Proper, valued at over $500 million, are sold in Kosovo and Metohija.

“We will start negotiating activities during next week, and the first thing we’ll discuss is the agenda”, Đurić said.

Referring to yesterday’s riots during the protests held in Priština, Đurić said that it was obvious that even 16 years after they assumed responsibility for the economic and social situation in Kosovo and Metohija, the PISG have failed to respond to citizens’ expectations.

According to Đurić, the PISG have been engaged in grander political issues, such as “pushing the nationalist dreams”, and all the while 90% of average Albanians think very little of their institutions and there is almost no economy.

When it comes to CSM, Đurić reiterated that the observance of the CSM agreement is an imperative for building normal relations.

“If we have sat down and finally made an agreement, which is owing to the responsible approach by Serbia, then it is rudimentary to implement the thing we have agreed on”, Đurić said.

When it comes to the dialing code, the Director of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said that Priština has failed to comply with almost any of its obligations relating to the agreement on telecommunications.

“There was no harmonization, they haven’t issued the appropriate licenses nor have they enabled Telecom to establish the base stations, and then Tahiri stated that she expects our part of the agreement to be implemented. It doesn’t work that way”, Đurić said.

He said that Priština must comply with its obligations, and only then would Belgrade fulfill its share, and added that Belgrade is carefully monitoring this and acting in accordance with its interests.

While commenting on the photo of Edi Rama from a joint session of the Governments of Albania and Kosovo, shared on the social media and accompanied by the caption “one country – one people – one dream”, Đurić said that this is yet another one of Rama’s political auto goals on the international scene.

“Maybe he was patted on the back for this in Tirana or Priština for five minutes, but all neighbors and all countries in the wider region, along with the EU institutions, regard this politics with raised eyebrows or with horror”, Đurić stated.