Petkovic meets with Sorensen

BELGRADE - The head 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, conveying a clear message that initiating concrete steps towards establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities and discussions about a draft statute of the Community was necessary for any tangible progress in the dialogue.

Petkovic especially warned that delaying the passage of Pristina's so-called laws on foreigners and vehicles must not be the ultimate achievement of the international community's actions regarding Pristina's caretaker PM Albin Kurti, but that a sustainable solution must be found while respecting agreements from the dialogue, especially those related to freedom of movement.

He noted that Pristina continued to make unilateral and escalatory moves, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement.

"A testimony to that are also impermissible and malicious statements by Besnik Bislimi whereby he is demonstrating that, instead of dialogue and respect for agreements reached to date, Pristina wants to jeopardise further the survival of Serbs and their right to life, freedom of movement and their right to medical treatment and education," Petkovic said.

He noted that the health care and education systems were the backbone of the survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija and the very core of the Community of Serb Municipalities, and that this must remain so.

He also pointed out that there had been an increase in the number of ethnically motivated incidents by Pristina, which he said was "doing everything to create impossible living conditions for Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija."

"That is why it is necessary to start forming a Community of Serb Municipalities as urgently as possible, and Belgrade expects from the EU, too, to take concrete steps in that direction," Petkovic said.