Serbia increases funds for parallel structures in Kosovo

Some 63.7m euros are planned for the Office for Kosovo of the Serbian Government, and most of the funds will be spent on “supporting the functioning of institutions and organisations on Kosovo territory”.

The word is first of all for parallel structures or “temporary suborgans of the Serbian state in Kosovo, which Kosovo does not recognise, according to the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels, should be integrated into Kosovo institutions.

Serbia's Government Office for Kosovo will receive about 6.5m euros more in 2020 than this year.

For a member of the Commission for Kosovo in the Parliament of Serbia, from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, Aleksandar Chotriq, that is justifiable.

Under Serbia's Constitution and positive laws, Kosovo is part of Serbia, and here comes the need to share the budget for that part of Serbia. Moreover, Kosovo authorities imposed very high taxes on goods from central Serbia, which hit many Serb populations living in Kosovo. The third factor is the need to keep the Serb population in Kosovo with these additional budgetary funds, as they live in very difficult conditions, not only political but also economic, and it is known that a number of people receive salaries from Serbia's budget, and this is a way for them to stay in their countries”, says Cotriq.

“using Brussels Agreement“

Within the total amount of about 63.7m euros, which will be available to the Office for Kosovo, 21.6m euros are planned for <x0m euros for the improvement of the quality of life of the Serbian and non-Albanian population in Kosovo”, most of which have been earmarked for construction and reconstruction of residential objects. More than that, around 36.7 million will be spent on “supporting operating and improving local administrative capacities”.

The problem is of a political nature, because when in the budget structure you come to the point of strengthening local administrative capacities, you see Serbia has actually suspended a part of the Brussels Agreement called the integration of local governance into the Kosovo system. In those municipal structures that are selected through elections in Kosovo, you have parallel municipal leaderships, the composition of municipal assemblies set up by Belgrade”, says Dusan Janjic, of the Nongovernmental Organisation, Forum for Ethnic Relations.

According to the 2020 budget proposal, Serbia in Kosovo numbers 29 municipalities. These municipal structures, or <x0organ temporary”, even 11 years after Kosovo's declaration of independence, have worked on the Serbian system and their staff has been paid by Belgrade.

Temporary organs work parallel to Kosovo municipalities, and in some cases staff work in both municipalities. And this staff gets double pay.

“They cannot be parallel institutions because they exist in the legitimate territory of a state. Everything else is parallel, except organs formed by the state of Serbia in Kosovo. Even before the international forces came, we had people living in Kosovo and they took high salaries compared to people from other parts of Serbia in order to stay in Kosovo or otherwise to leave there”.

This is how states work when they try to preserve a specific territory and populate it with their population. The fact that some receive these double salaries may require control of whose interests they work for. I believe it's just a way for people to stay in that territory, which is hard to live with, so it's welcome each contribution”, says Aleksandar Cotriq.

Dusan Janjic sees these <x0m> argument” as “absurdition the end of a policy and a society” and a violation of the Brussels Agreement.

Although during the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, it was agreed to erase all remaining Serb authorities' institutions and their integration into Kosovo authorities, this has happened only with the Police and the Judiciary, but not with local governments.

Serbian-Kosovo official

In many municipalities in Kosovo, Serbian temporary “institutions” and municipalities that are part of the Kosovo system work in parallel. For example, in northern Mitrovica, the Kosovo municipality, North Mitrovica and the interim body financed by Serbia is “Kosovska Mitrovica”, and the same situation is in other countries.

The example of this reality is the case of Bratislav Nikolic, who is chairman of both of Sterpce's parallel municipalities. The same is true of Svetislav Ivanovic in the municipality of Novoberda and Zoran Tolich in Leposaviq.

“In essence, Serbia is hurting itself when we consider the requirement for creating a Serbian Communist Association and the argument that it is implementing the Brussels Agreement. If we look at the structure of this shipment, we will see it primarily serves to preserve some of the functions that Serbia has covered since Slobodan Milosevic's (former president of Yugoslavia). The same goes for education, where pre-school and elementary institutions, at the same time, also receive money from the Kosovo budget”, Janjic points out.

It also points to the problem of (no) transparency, saying it is about “a significant part of the money that is out of control, because they also flow through public companies”.

The Office for Kosovo is obliged to submit to the Ministry of Finance quarterly reports on funds that were extended “to local self-government bodies” in Kosovo. Aleksandar Cotric says the Kosovo Parliament Commission “at least twice a year examines the reports of this office regarding expenditures.

However, these documents are not found on their website. Radio Free Europe has sent questions about this issue to the Office for Kosovo of the Government of Serbia, but has not accepted answers.

However, the Budget Bill reportedly says partitioning and using money will take place “under a special act later adopted by the Government of Serbia”.

When it comes to planning funds for Serbian institutions on Kosovo territory, it would be much better to have more information on the budget Law itself and not then a portion of those funds to be distributed with separate Government decisions. As for this, for other purposes, the budget law should be a comprehensive document and MPs ʹ but the opinion should have a detailed view of spending planning”, says Nemanja Nenadiq from the Nongovernmental Organisation “Transparency“in Serbia.

Media sharing for Kosovo

Tools that will go to Kosovo do not end up in the Kosovo Government Office. In the draft budget for 2020, the tools connecting Kosovo can be found within the budgetary lines of various ministries, cabinets, administrative circles, administrations for co-operation with churches and religious communities and other communities.

There was a lot in the past period that paid dearly for their patriotism. This is not a good practice at all and it has to stop, and the best way is through transparency. Therefore, each budget line should be transparent, clearly identifying any expense and the purpose of those funds that have been allocated to Serbs in Kosovo”, points out Dragan Dobrasinovic, by the Coalition of Nongovernmental Organisations for Public Finance Supervising.

Under the Ministry of Education, about 660,000 euros are planned for “teaching support“in primary and secondary schools, while for the “Pristina University with temporary headquarters in Mitrovica“, Serbia has allocated about 23.2m euros.

About 394,000 euros have been earmarked for the “Administrative Circles in Kosovo”, designed for the purpose of carrying out state administration activities outside the headquarters of these bodies.

As part of the funds earmarked for the minister's cabinet without portfolio, responsible for innovation and technological development (Nenad Popovovic), 237,000 euros will be spent for “supporting promotion and innovation” in Kosovo.

The Ministry of Culture and Information will allocate 78.6 thousand euros to “supporting information of citizens in the Serbian language”.

The Directorate for Co-operation with Churches and Religious Communities envisions 5388,000 euros for “supporting clergy and monasteries in Kosovo”.

Double Loyalty

This gives rise to the social mobilization of these people to protect the current state and policy. In the Milosevic era, Belgrade implemented that model and no government has managed to deal with this paradox, which will never return financially again because no one will recognise these expenses, especially after the Brussels Agreement. On the other hand, the costs accumulated, such as pensions and social contributions, which Serbia must pay Kosovo citizens” are collected.

The biggest “problem is Kosovo Serbs' financial dependence on Belgrade. But, at the same time, that loyalty began to shift towards Pristina. We now have dual financial loyalty ] the dependence of people on budget money and separately, their ethnic and political loyalty”, says Dusan Janjic.

In contrast to the Government Office for Kosovo, which is expected to have nearly 64m euros in 2020, the Co-ordination Body for the southern municipalities of Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja received 3.3m euros for the development of this part (which is most often mentioned when the territorial exchange proposals are discussed as a solution to the problem between Kosovo and Serbia).

There are a number of Serbian ministries that will have the budget smaller than the Office for Kosovo. The Ministry of European Integration (10.5m euros), the Ministry of Youth and Sports (52m), and the Ministry of Tourism and Telecommunications Trade (59m euros). /REL