Petkovic discusses the life of Serbs in Kosovo, continuation of Dialogue, and the CSM with Sørensen

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, met today with the European Union Special Representative for the Belgrade–Pristina Dialogue, Peter Sørensen, with whom he discussed several important issues affecting the lives of the Serbian people in Kosovo, as well as further steps towards the continuation of dialogue as the path to the normalization of relations.

According to the official statement, Petkovic specifically informed his interlocutor about a series of unilateral and escalatory actions undertaken by the authorities in Pristina aimed at provoking tensions and undermining the dialogue, including the recent closure of several Serbian institutions in Leposavic and Strpce that had been providing assistance to more than 11,000 beneficiaries.

He also pointed to a number of unfounded and politically motivated arrests of Serbs, which the Pristina regime, led by Albin Kurti, has been carrying out with the aim of further persecuting the Serbian population.

"Recently, it has been 12 years since Pristina failed to establish the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (CSM), as stipulated by the Brussels Agreement, whose implementation was guaranteed by the European Union. Many of the problems we face today on the ground, and which the Serbian people are experiencing, would not exist had the CSM been formed, as it is intended to serve as a framework for the preservation and protection of both the individual and collective rights of Serbs," Petkovic underlined.

He emphasized that Belgrade has consistently been the constructive party in the dialogue, always coming forward with proposals aimed at resolving issues rather than generating them, whereas Pristina has instead resorted to unilateral actions and breaches of agreements in order to create new political tensions on the ground and evade its obligations.

The meeting was also attended by the President of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, Veljko Odalovic, and the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret. Odalovic particularly emphasized the importance and necessity of implementing the Declaration on Missing Persons and highlighted Belgrade's clear commitment to treating this matter as an important humanitarian issue from the outset, although numerous obstructions have been encountered from the Pristina side.