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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Energy crisis in Kosovo must be solved as soon as possible

Belgrade/Brussels, 22 November 2006

The Economic Team for Kosovo-Metohija and southern Serbia stated that during the second day of the official visit to Brussels, head of the Economic team Nenad Popovic participated in the first working meeting of the European and Serbian parliaments where he spoke about the current economic situation in Kosovo and pointed out once more that the energy crisis in the province must be resolved as soon as possible.

Nenad Popovic

Author: Tanjug

Popovic said that the Economic team proposed that a mixed team of experts be urgently set up to manage the operation of the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK), in which the important role will be given, apart from ethnic Albanian and international experts, to those who know KEK best, and those are Serbian experts who successfully managed KEK until 1999.

They are experienced managers and professionals who know every metre of the network and every square metre of open pits and Kosovo's thermo electric power plants A and B, Popovic said. He added that if the authorities of interim institution of self-government in Kosovo and UNMIK refuse to accept a Serbian government donation of 50 kilowatts of electricity per month for endangered areas in the north of the province, citizens of this part of Kosovo may face a humanitarian disaster.

In his address to European parliament members Popovic said that the destruction and blocking of Telekom Srbija's equipment in Kosovo-Metohija is completely unjustifiable and declared this decision the most direct breach of rights of not only 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, but also of 200,000 ethnic Albanians who use this company's services because of lower prices and better conditions.

Together with Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Radomir Naumov, Popovic will meet today with EU Deputy Director-General of the General Directorate for Energy and Transport Fabrizio Barbaso and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

The Serbian government delegation and EU top officials will discuss various economic issues, including the Serbian government's proposal for improving the energy situation in Kosovo-Metohija, the statement adds.