Petkovic: Community key issue in dialogue, topic of Presevo unacceptable

BRUSSELS - The director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Tuesday in Brussels he had made it clear to the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Peter Sorensen that normalisation of relations and establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities needed to be the key topic of the dialogue and that it was impermissible that Pristina's chief negotiator was trying to impose the Presevo and Bujanovac municipalities in central Serbia as a topic in the process.

"Yesterday, we heard (Besnik) Bislimi raise the issue of Presevo and Bujanovac as purported topics. They are not topics in the dialogue, it is known what the topic of the dialogue is - the issue of Kosovo-Metohija, the position of Serbs, establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities and what we can do to achieve, through compromise solutions, peace and stability in Kosovo-Meothija, which are necessary for both the Serb and the ethnic Albanian population," Petkovic said in a statement after the meeting with Sorensen.

He said Bujanovac and Presevo were a matter that had to do with central Serbia, Serbian laws and the Constitution of Serbia and could by no means be discussed in the dialogue, regardless of attempts by Bislimi and Albin Kurti to push that through and present it the way they wanted to.

"Today, we had a preparatory meeting for direct trilateral discussions that should take place very soon, I expect that, very soon, we will receive an invitation to continue the dialogue in a trilateral format. Pristina had a preparatory meeting yesterday, and Belgrade is having one today," Petkovic also said.