Meeting in Brussels ends, Bislimi: Serbia seeks illegal structures to be financed by the creation of association

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said after the new round of dialogue, that Serbia had a <x0-> disturbing position” on the issue of transferring financial means to the Dinar currency from Serbia to Kosovo.

After meeting with Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkov, Bislimi said European mediator Miroslav Lajcak will now come up with a new proposal about resolving the issue.

The Serb side's “position is that all of Serbia's illegal structures should continue to be financed, to continue to be financed until the time when the Association [of Serb majority municipalities] is established, because in their opinion, the purpose of the association is not to ensure good co-ordination among municipalities, but to ensure the legitimacy of the presence of Serbian institutions in Kosovo, which would make them semi-Serb institutions, but not the institutions of Serbs in Kosovo”, Bislim said.

Bislimi said that in terms of the idea of creating a new business entity in northern Kosovo, inhabited by Serb majority, so that financial assistance goes to beneficiaries, through converting the Serbian Post, Serbia has seen this idea as “a kind of privatisation of post” from Kosovo.

“Of course, all these proposals were very destructive, so Lajcak will come up with a new proposal and we will have to give our thoughts to this proposal in the next seven days”, Bislim told reporters after the trilateral meeting.

The meeting between Bislim and Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkov, was the fifth held in Brussels on the dinar issue, whose use was banned in Kosovo in February.

In contrast to previous meetings, European Union Special Envoy Miroslav Lajcak did not initially hold separate meetings with Bislim and Petkov, joining them directly.

With Kosovo Central Bank's new regulation (BQK), the euro was designated as the only currency in Kosovo for conducting cash payments on February 1st. The introduction of this regulation has angered Serbia, which through its state budget sends financial assistance to Serbs living in Kosovo.

The international community has urged Kosovo to suspend the regulation in order to give citizens time to adjust to the new practice.

But, the Kosovo government has insisted that it is about an independent BEC decision, not political decision.

Several proposals for finding a solution under which Serbia could make payments to users of financial aid in Kosovo have been provided at meetings in Brussels on this issue.

Lajcak said Tuesday, two days before today's meeting, that he is working to find a solution to the issue.

In a summary of his activities during the week, he stressed that in recent meetings with top negotiators, they have reached “affecting the” gap over this topic.

However, last week's preliminary meeting in Brussels, where there was no trilateral meeting, ended without any results.

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said after the April 18th meeting that the Serbian side had come with no idea how to handle the EU envoy's initial proposal.

“This meeting could be called a futile meeting, with no result, and possibly as success of the Serbian side's stumbling policy”, Bislimi said on April 18th.

Meanwhile, Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovovic, said Belgrade “did everything to find a solution”. /REL