President of the Mitrovica North Municipal Assembly Ksenija Bozovic said Thursday that no municipality in northern Kosovo had yet received any money from the EU funds or from the ”fund for the north of Kosovo,“ which was being filled with duties collected at the Jarinje and Brnjak administrative crossings.
Bozovic told Tanjug that that the Assembly did not have any information about the money, except that they were aware that a commission was beign set up that should be deciding on its allocation.
Although the European Commission said earlier that it had approved EUR 15 million as preliminary assistance to municipalities with Serb majority in Kosovo, ”with special emphasis on the municipalities in the north,“ Bozovic stressed that it obviously waited for institutions in Kosovo to be fully set up.
Now that the legislative and executive authorities are finally set up, I hope that the willingnes is there, but it is obvious that they expect this assembly to “start running at full capacity,” Bozovic said.
She said that lack of money was one of the main reasons why no capital projects had been started in Kosovska Mitrovica and other Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo, adding that she hoped that the major projects would be realized before the end of the year.
Speaking about problems facing the Municipal Assembly of Mitrovica North, Bozovic said that the Assembly did not have its own building, she did not have a president’s office, and there was not a room to holding municipal assembly meetings.
She pointed out that the budget proposal for the North Mitrovica municipality was EUR 17,368,000, but that budget did not apply to health and education workers and the workers in public enterprises in the city.
“I still hope that the Republic of Serbia will take care of the people who are not included in this budget through the community of Serb municipalities,” Bozovic said.
