BELGRADE – Marko Djuric, head of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo-Metohija, stated on Wednesday that the agreement on judiciary, which was initialed in Brussels on Tuesday, will bring about better conditions for Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.
Djuric said that for Radio and Television of Serbia that he expects that the agreement will also contribute to the opening of chapters in the EU accession talks.
The agreement envisages that aside from the police administration in the north of the province, Serbs will now have a court, whose president will be a Serb, and there will be a sufficient number of Serb judges and prosecutors north of the Ibar River.
“This is important because as of 2008, there were no Serb judges and prosecutors in the provincial institutions,” he underlined, adding that the talks in Brussels were difficult and that the Serbian delegation led by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic fought for every prosecutor and every judge.
Other open issues were discussed in Brussels as well, such as assigning a dial code for Kosovo, Djuric said.
“There is a draft agreement aimed to enable ‘Telekom Srbija to operate normally in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija, which is currently not the case. And they (ethnic Albanians) wanted to get a dial code just like that, and that was not accepted,” Djuric explained.
According to Djuric, Vucic insisted for the Community of Serb municipalities, as the central part of the Brussels agreement, to be placed on the agenda, and that was the dominant topic in the talks with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
The issue of illegal immigrants from KiM was also addressed at the meeting, said Djuric, noting that the EU officials are concerned about the migration wave and its causes.
Serbia started taking measures to improve the financial status of our people in KiM, said Djuric. Not only that the Serbian government will not reduce its presence in Kosovo, but it will try to improve the quality of life of our people, he said.
