Southern town gets multi-ethnic administration

The southern town of Bujanovac today got multi-ethnic administration for the first time after a year. Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Dimitrios Kypreos has welcomed the Agreement on Establishment of the Multiethnic Government in Bujanovac, which was signed Thursday by the representatives of the local political parties, announced the OSCE Belgrade Office. Southern town gets multi-ethnic administration "It is a crucial development that the ethnic Albanian leaders of Bujanovac decided to form a coalition with their Serbian co-citizens and to govern this important town together. I hope this decision, which underlines that constructive cooperation is, after all, possible, will receive the echo it deserves. This accord also implements an essential component of the Agreement on Principles of Reconstruction of the Coordination Body, signed in Belgrade in March 2009," underlined Kypreos. "We appreciate the role played by Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Milan Markovic, to make today's accord a reality, and encourage all parties to make further steps towards integration of ethnic Albanians in state institutions as stipulated in the 2009 Agreement," the announcement reads. Markovic signed Thursday in Bujanovac with the representatives of the Serbian and ethnic Albanian political parties the Agreement on Establishment of the Multiethnic Government in that municipality, which implies that along with the three current ethnic Albanian parties the authority will now also include two Serbian parties. The authority in Bujanovac will comprise the Party for Democratic Action with 13 councilors, the Party for Democratic Progress with 6 councilors and the Albanian Democratic Union with 3 councilors, as well as the Democratic Party - Coalition “For European Serbia Boris Tadic” and the Group of Citizens “Stojanca Arsic and Dr Miodrag Milkovic” with 3 councilors respectively. A scene from Bujanovac (FoNet, file)

Southern town gets multi-ethnic administration

"It is a crucial development that the ethnic Albanian leaders of Bujanovac decided to form a coalition with their Serbian co-citizens and to govern this important town together. I hope this decision, which underlines that constructive cooperation is, after all, possible, will receive the echo it deserves. This accord also implements an essential component of the Agreement on Principles of Reconstruction of the Coordination Body, signed in Belgrade in March 2009," underlined Kypreos.

"We appreciate the role played by Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, Milan Marković, to make today's accord a reality, and encourage all parties to make further steps towards integration of ethnic Albanians in state institutions as stipulated in the 2009 Agreement," the announcement reads.

Marković signed Thursday in Bujanovac with the representatives of the Serbian and ethnic Albanian political parties the Agreement on Establishment of the Multiethnic Government in that municipality, which implies that along with the three current ethnic Albanian parties the authority will now also include two Serbian parties.

The authority in Bujanovac will comprise the Party for Democratic Action with 13 councilors, the Party for Democratic Progress with 6 councilors and the Albanian Democratic Union with 3 councilors, as well as the Democratic Party - Coalition “For European Serbia Boris Tadić” and the Group of Citizens “Stojanca Arsić and Dr Miodrag Milković” with 3 councilors respectively.