Serbia seeks EU guarantees that there will be no blocking of the CSM funding. The government will allocate 37 billion dinars to the province.
Belgrade in the next year will allocate almost 37 billion dinars for Kosovo and Metohija. This amount, according to the draft budget of Serbia for 2014th, is planned for operation of state and local government, public enterprises and institutions in the province.
How much of these funds will go directly to the account of the Community of Serbian municipalities, and whether, and in what amount, will be “co-funded” from Pristina and from Brussels cash registers, will be known after the completion of the election and the next round of tripartite dialogue Ivica Dacic , Minister Hashim Thaci and Catherine Ashton. As we learn, the Serbian side will insist that rule of “double key” is not applied in spending in no case, or that Pristina does not have the ability to possibly stop the flow of money or to change purpose which Belgrade or the CSM determined itself.
According to Marko Djuric, Advisor to the President of the Republic and the participant in the Brussels negotiations, during the regulation of the CSM funding first step will be the adoption of its Statute, as it will define the scope of the CSM institutions.
– The Brussels agreement stipulates that the manner and extent of financing of the CSM will be available to the public, and as Serbia is concerned, the sum so far set aside for the Serb institutions in KiM will not be reduced, as there will be no job losses – explains Djuric to Novosti.
The possibility that some of the money for the CSM is set aside and by Pristina, he says:
– It can be assumed that the provincial budget will allocate funds for this purpose, because if there is power to collect taxes, it is logical that some of the money goes back to the municipal cash register. However, according to the draft budget for 2014, currently before the parliament in Pristina, there are no items relating to the CSM.
Prime Minister Dacic said that there are different possible forms of financing of the CSM: Kosovo budget, the Serbia’s budget and international organizations or from the incomes of the municipalities.
Part of the income, but only for the development of the municipalities in the north, will come from the fund where taxes and duties collected at Brnjak and Jarinje crossings are going to.
These funds monitor and control the three-member “Board”, representatives of Belgrade, Pristina and the EU. North can count on 15 million euros of aid promised from Brussels.
According to the constitution, the adoption of constitutional law follows for Serbia that would regulate the autonomy level of Kosovo and Metohija, and in what time the adoption of this act will get on the agenda, according to Marko Djuric , will be a matter of “political assessment”.
