Petkovic meets with Sorensen

BELGRADE - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic met with the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Peter Sorensen in Belgrade on Friday to discuss several important issues of significance for the life of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija and further steps towards continuing the dialogue as a path to normalisation of relations.

Petkovic especially informed Sorensen of a series of unilateral and escalatory moves made by the Pristina authorities with the aim of creating tensions and eroding the dialogue, including a recent closure of several Serbian institutions in Leposavic and Strpce.

He also pointed out a series of groundless and politically-motivated arrests of Serbs, carried out by the Albin Kurti regime in Pristina with the aim of further expulsion of Serbs, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

He noted that the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities - Pristina's commitment under the Brussels Agreement - was now 12 years overdue even though the implementation of the deal was also guaranteed by the EU.

He stressed that Belgrade was the constructive party in the dialogue and that it had always made proposals aimed at solving problems, rather than at ignoring them, while Pristina was resorting to unilateral moves and violations of all agreements to generate fresh political tensions on the ground and dodge its commitments.

The meeting was also attended by the president of the Serbian government Commission on Missing Persons Veljko Odalovic and the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret.

Odalovic noted the importance and the necessity of implementing an existing declaration on missing persons, as well as Belgrade's clear commitment to treat this matter as an important humanitarian topic from the very outset, but noted that Pristina was making numerous obstructions on that path, the statement also said.