Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Belgrade dissatisfied with proposals on province's decentralisation

Belgrade, 26 February 2007

Coordinator of the Serbian state team for talks on Kosovo-Metohija's future status Slobodan Samardzic announced today that when the talks resume tomorrow, the Serbian delegation will submit a number of amendments regarding the province's decentralisation.

In a statement to the press in Vienna, where a several-day round of talks is being held between Belgrade and Pristina regarding UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal, Samardzic said that Belgrade will put forward a number of objections to Ahtisaari's document on decentralisation, primarily concerning the fact that Serbia's proposals from previous rounds of talks on this issue were disregarded.

According to Samardzic, if municipalities are to function properly and realise their goals, which is the safety of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija and exercise of their rights, their number must be greater than what Ahtisaari proposed and they must have more authorisations and stronger ties with Belgrade.

He said that Ahtisaari's document does not say anything about what the two sides have already discussed regarding increased jurisdiction of municipalities with a Serb majority, ties with Belgrade, number of municipalities, the transition period and the way in which municipalities will be formed.

Samardzic recalled that in previous decentralisation talks, Belgrade proposed that 11 new municipalities with a Serb majority be formed in Kosovo-Metohija, whereas Ahtisaari offered only five new municipalities and the expansion of one of the existing ones, to which the delegation of Kosovo Albanians agreed.

At the same time, Samardzic explained that the number of new municipalities is not an issue, but rather who lives there and who is to return there, as well as how they will function. He pointed out that Ahtisaari started from a purely technical criterion that the very number of municipalities will enable a better position for the Serbs there.

"This number is insufficient and the existing municipalities are very small and territorially and functionally unconnected. They also may be abolished after the new census", warned Samardzic.

He also announced that when it comes to the judiciary and police sectors, Belgrade will demand that heads of police forces at the local level be appointed by the local municipal assembly of Serbs and that only the assembly should have the final word on this matter.

Samardzic added that Ahtisaari proposed a complicated mechanism which implies that the head of police be chosen by the Kosovo Police Force, which is under control of the future Kosovo-Metohija interior ministry, and that, according to Samardzic, is completely unacceptable.

As for the judiciary, he said Belgrade demands that Serbian municipalities have the final word and added that the Pristina delegation did not agree to it and instead demanded a centralised appointment process.

The worst part of Ahtisaari's proposal on decentralisation is financing, said Samardzic and stressed that Belgrade demands that Serbian municipalities be financially autonomous, that they have their own revenues and income sources from the Kosovo-Metohija budget, whereas in certain areas of increased jurisdiction – health, culture, education and social policy –firm ties with Belgrade should be maintained.

According to Samardzic, behind the expression "multiethnic Kosovo", so often used by Ahtisaari, lurks an immense deception whose basic goal is to sever Kosovo-Metohija from Serbia and create an ethnically clean state.

He added that Belgrade's approach will focus on enabling independent life to non-ethnic Albanians through decentralisation, which means they should have their own jurisdictions under which they would make their own decisions.

He concluded that only with such guarantees of autonomy could the Serbs remain and survive in Kosovo-Metohija and return there. He also recalled that two-thirds of the Serbian population have been exiled from their homes in the province.