Petkovic: Brussels discussions were difficult, I insisted on Community of Serb Municipalities

BRUSSELS - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Thursday evening discussions held in Brussels earlier in the day as part of the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue had been difficult and that he had insisted on urgent establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities and pointed out the difficult position of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs.

"I also had a separate tete-a-tete meeting with (EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Peter) Sorensen, at which we also discussed the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, and I particularly insisted on establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities and on the need to establish it urgently so that we can start discussing the Statute as soon as possible," Petkovic told reporters.

He said he had also addressed the difficult position of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, especially amid fresh threats and escalatory unilateral moves by Albin Kurti and the Pristina regime.

"If Albin Kurti continues that anti-Serb policy, a policy of trampling the dialogue underfoot and making the rights of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs pointless, I am afraid the survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija will be fully jeopardised, as will peace and security across the Western Balkans," Petkovic noted.

He said Belgrade remained absolutely committed to a peaceful, compromise solution.

Petkovic also said that, "thanks to enormous efforts by Belgrade, our team, the Commission on Missing Persons of the Government of Serbia," a Belgrade-Pristina commission on missing persons had met for the first time on Thursday.

He said he hoped meetings between other members of the joint commission would be held in about ten days and that the parties were waiting for an invitation by Sorensen.