Djordjevic: Central government wants complete control over the property of all municipalities in Kosovo

The current government wants to exercise complete control over the entire territory of Kosovo, leaving local governments with no say in how they manage their property and land currently under their ownership, Petar Djordjevic of the NGO Young Active Gracanica said, commenting on the Draft Law on Public Property.

Djordjevic pointed out that such an intention on the part of the central government had been clearly demonstrated in the case of the Municipality of Gracanica, from which the Kosovo Government took 13 hectares of land two years ago and allocated it to an organization working with people with special needs.

He recalled that the decision had attracted considerable public attention and had also raised concerns within the international community that central institutions could manage property in Serbian-majority areas as they saw fit.

"I think that, through this law, the Government is trying in some way to legalize decisions such as that one and to ensure that, in the future, the property of municipalities—not only Serbian-majority municipalities, but others as well—is managed in the manner the Kosovo authorities see fit," Djordjevic told Kosovo Online.