Debt for energy spent in northern Kosovo nobody pays

Citizens of these municipalities (North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposaviq) have not paid since the end of the last war on energy spent.

From the year 1999 to 2017, bills spent on that section have been billed to citizens of other parts of Kosovo. But after much complaint, the Court of Appeals, late 2017, had decided to suspend this practice because it was illegal.

Minister of Economic Development in the Government of Kosovo Valdrin Luka told Radio Free Europe, that energy bills are not currently paid by citizens, nor by the budget of the Republic of Kosovo.

Luka shows that the northern part of Kosovo is being supplied by the international transmission, but the debt will remain pending until a decision is made about the banking of tools.

The “is currently being drawn from international transmission. Which means that energy is being borrowed into the international transmission network, because we attract the exact same amount required by northern consumption”, Luka said.

That energy will normally be returned. And the form of how it will return will be part of the discussion with the beginning of implementation of the Energy Agreement. Will it be returned through citizens' tariffs in the north, or returned through a co-operation with the Government of Kosovo or through the surplus energy of the Kosovo Energy Corporation, it has not yet been defined”, Minister Luka said.

There is also an agreement signed between Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels in 2013 to resolve energy problems in the northern part of Kosovo, under the ease of the European Union.

But this agreement has never been implemented because, according to it, the condition for Serbia is the registration of a Serbian power utility company in the northern part. Serbia has repeatedly hesitated to make company registration, due to the non-recognition of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo.

But, Minister Luka shows that this company has already been registered in Kosovo institutions, and its license is expected.

The agreement's “Pjesion has been to register a company with owners of Serbian broadcasting, in order to begin the downloading. Normally that energy will come through the Power Supply Distribution (KEDS) to the company registered in the north and will become the citizen supply. KEDS currently have no access north of”, Luca points out.

But the Serbian company has already been registered. Initially the reason for the blockade has been the use of the term “Kosovo Metohija” on the company's status. But this problem has already been eliminated, Minister Luka said.

Even civil society representatives, despite the criticism of the energy sector in general, agree that recent improvements in Kosovo's energy independence have been made.

Dardan Abazi, researcher at the Institute for Development Policy, INDEP, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, says the northern part of Kosovo should also be integrated into Kosovo's energy system.

“Passively that part of Kosovo should enjoy the right to supply electricity as a basic product, but for this normally, the payment of energy should be done regularly and this payment should be reflected in final comparisons to the Kosovo energy system”, Abazi says.

Meanwhile, Economic Development Minister Valdrin Luka believes that in 2020 it will solve energy problems in the north. This is due to the fact that continental European Transmission Operators have made a decision to have the Republic of Kosovo control and manage energy boundaries.