Northern Mitrovica and Leposaviqi's request to access the system, Z. RRE says they've been answered

The Energy Regulatory Office has said it has responded to North Mitrovica Mayor Erden Attic and Leposaviqi's Lulzim Hetemi's office, in terms of their requests for keying the system and paying electricity to all public sector institutions in these municipalities.

From this institution they have told Gazeta Express that they have offered the two mayors the clarifications regarding their demands. After accepting requests from the mayors of northern Mitrovica and the mayor of the Leposaviqi municipality, the Energy Regulatory Office on June 16th, 2023 has returned official responses by offering clarifications concerning the issues raised by the mayors of these municipalities.

All issues related to supply, lock, etc. The RRE has instructed the mayors to apply for relevant network operators depending on the level of tension in which public sector institutions are supplied that are under the management of these municipalities”, said the ZRERE Turkey response.

The other two municipalities -- Zubin Potoku and Zvecani -- say they have still made such a request.

“So far, Z RRE has not accepted any paperwork from Zubin Potok municipality and Zvecan”, they have declared by the Energy Regulatory Office.

The Express also asked COSTT's whether he answered the municipalities, but by the time the text was published, they returned no response.

North Mitrovica Chairman Erden Attic and Leposaviqi's Lulzim Hetemi have called on these institutions to start paying electricity in public municipal institutions.

In applying for these institutions, Attic had demanded that this be done as soon as possible.

“I ask you to start taking the necessary actions to key all these institutions so that the municipality can begin paying the consumed energy”, Attic's request said.

They have also asked the authorities to report on the accumulated debt of the spent electricity.

I directed you today STT and ZRRE to lock up our public municipal institutions so that regular electricity payment can begin. The authority should also inform us of the accumulated debt of the spent electricity so that we can pay off those duties”, Hetem wrote.

Otherwise, for 18 years now, the flow citizens have spent in the northern part of Kosovo -- inhabited by Serb majority -- has paid citizens from other parts of the country.

The value of the electricity spent during 2022 in four Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo is over 63m euros.

In 2021, this value was around 42m euros, and according to a GAP Institute calculations, it turns out that in 2010-2020, citizens in the north have spent over 132m euros in electricity.

Expenses were paid by 2017 by citizens of other Kosovo municipalities and then by COST and the Government of Kosovo.

The refusal to pay the current has resulted from civic disobedience, but also the impact of various structures in the north, which have operated under Serbia's correction.

To pay off these debts, citizens of other parts of Kosovo have paid bills for 3.5 per cent more expensive.

From 2017 onward, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has passed payment responsibility to the country's institutions. That same year, the Court of Appeals has demanded that consumers who have paid the current spent in the north for 18 years be compensated.

On April 18th, the Supreme Court has refused ZEREA's request to rescind the Appeal Act, saying consumers must return the means.

When and how this will be done, there is still no official information.