A North Mitrovica municipal session was interrupted yesterday, upon proposal of Mayor Goran Rakic, so that councilors could receive written guarantees from Pristina that the budget for 2016 would be the same as for the previous year.

“We witnessed that the budget for 2015 was a political one and that it was not in line with the real needs of residents of North Mitrovica municipality. We have assurances that written guarantees will be forwarded before the end of tomorrow, after which the session will continue and we will adopt the budget,” said Rakic. He added that the reason for requesting guarantees was that the number of employees has not gone down but funds for salaries have been reduced. The deadline for adopting the budget is 1 March 2016.

At yesterday’s session councilors also adopted a resolution expressing disappointment with “political motivated judgment” of EULEX in the case of the leader of the Civic Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic.