Management team for the establishment of the Community of Serbian municipalities (ZSO) in Kosovo will send soon a draft Statute of the ZSO to the newly formed assemblies in Serbian communities. According to Ljubomir Maric from the management team, establishing ZSO could procedurally last two days, and possibly twenty. New elections for mayor of Kosovska Mitrovica, he said, will not hinder the process.
In drafting the Statute, management team used the elements of more than 350 European regions. Italy, for example, is divided into 20 regions, which are based on different historical, geographical, cultural and economic criteria, while constitutional laws are guaranteeing them certain autonomy and competence.
In Spain there are 17 autonomous communities with wide legislative and executive autonomy, its own parliament and regional government. They have different authorities, which are stipulated by their statutes.
Dusan Janjic, from the Forum for Ethnic Relations, estimates that ZSO will be functional autonomy, i.e. “more than association of municipalities, and less than administrative- territorial autonomy “. “Kosovo constitution allows very poor functional autonomy. Due to it, I expect a ‘tough’ meeting in Brussels, on 27 January, in regards to the discussion on the competencies that should be transferred to ZSO. There will be pressure on Thaci to step down from claim that ZSO is only NGO” said Janjic.
Some European representatives in Kosovo confirmed that ZSO will not be reduced to the Association of Municipalities, as Pristina wants. However, the width of the competences of ZSO will certainly be limited by the Brussels agreement. Still, the Community will have executive authority in the field of education, health, urban planning and economic development.
Janjic says that ZSO could have their income from three sources: from central Kosovo budget, from municipalities that join ZSO and from their own sources, i.e. from taxes collected at the crossings, and environmental taxes.
