Lucic: Continuous pressure from Kurti's administration on our company and the Serbs continues, but we will win in court

The General Director of Telekom Srbija, Vladimir Lucic, assessed that the decision of the Competition Authority of Kosovo, which fined the company MTS 1.5 million euros, was a continuation of the continuous campaign by Albin Kurti's administration against this company.

"Unfortunately, the continuous pressure from Kurti's administration on our company continues. It reached its peak in August this year when they tried to shut us down, but they failed. Now they are going for plan B, which is to limit MTS in further expansion on the territory of Kosovo", Lucic said for Kosovo Online.

He reminded that the person responsible for competition protection had announced such an outcome back in August and that they would penalize MTS for allegedly violating the law during the acquisition of cable operators, behaving as if they were representing the "Competition Authority".

"I would repeat again that they are not right, and the company respects the Brussels Agreement. At the time when we accredited those four operators, the Law on the Acquisition of Cable Operators was in force, which stipulated that if you acquire a company of a certain level of annual revenue, you do not have to report it to the Competition Authority", Lucic said.

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He pointed out that the law had since been changed.

"In the meantime, they changed that law. I claim that they did it to slow us down because they saw our expansion strategy and realized that, as the only serious operator in the Western Balkans, we would continue to expand there. They deleted those sentences in the new law", Lucic said, adding that they were now trying to force MTS to reapply with a fine, and the goal was to reject them again.

"We can see that they will reject us from one decision we received last week, where they rejected us for a relatively small cable operator in Gracanica, which is smaller than 1,000 users, one of the few we have not acquired, with a very unfounded legal explanation", Lucic said, adding that the essential intention was to prevent the expansion of MTS, but they would not succeed.

"Their intention is to prevent the expansion of MTS; however, I can say that this time they will lose because it is evident that this time they do not even respect their own laws they created", Lucic said, mentioning that there was a 30-day deadline for an appeal to the Commercial Court.

"This does not postpone the execution of the financial compensation; however, when we appeal, we will ask the regulator to postpone that payment, and I do not believe they will accept our appeal, but I am completely sure that we will win it in court, and if they charge us, we will pay it back with interest", Lucic emphasized.

He also stated that the disputed amount for which MTS had been fined, as he stated, the fine of 1.5 million euros was not accurately calculated in relation to the company's revenues.

Lucic said that attacks on MTS were usually planned and executed before holidays, and he reminded that the same thing had happened on August 4 this year, considering that the American and Brussels administrations were on vacation.

"Last time it was August, now it's before Christmas and New Year holidays. What is good is that they gave up on the most drastic attack, which is to cut us off. So now it is evident that any attempt by MTS is impossible, and I think we defended ourselves well there. Now comes this phase in Kosovo to fight to be able to expand", Lucic said, adding that parallel to the development of cable television, MTS was working on obtaining a license for the third mobile operator in Kosovo.

"I am completely convinced that the result of this fight will be primarily the annulment of this decision before the Commercial Court and that we will finally get a positive signal for the third license", Lucic said.

Lucic emphasizes that Telekom Srbija, whether someone likes it or not, is by far the strongest operator in the Western Balkans and, as such, is recognized by various European institutions such as the European Investment Bank, which, he adds, finances the development of the 5G network only to his company in the Western Balkans.

So, he emphasizes, that Telekom Srbija will sooner or later expand to the entire territory of Kosovo with both fixed and mobile networks.

According to him, this process is certain and unstoppable.

"I must say we have had positive experiences with the American and Brussels administrations when they find out that they (Pristina) are really violating even their laws. They reacted well and protected us, I expect them to protect us in this case as well because this is a part of the plan to prevent further expansion of an operator who wants to invest, and create new jobs", Lucic pointed out.

Lucic believes that this attack on his company in Kosovo is a part of the plan to expel the Serbs from their centuries-old hearth.

"Telekom operates in all republics of the former Yugoslavia without any problems. We operate in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and now we have opened Turkey. This is definitely a part of all attacks by Kurti's administration to try to expel the Serbs from that territory, and then we, as the largest Serbian company, are a thorn in the eye that, if he can't shut down, he should at least reduce the operation of MTS. It is completely obvious, that all these features are political, and I hope that we will fight and that they will not prevent us from expanding", Lucic concluded.