"Northern Kosovo inevitable topic, key to solution"

Northern Kosovo is an inevitable topic and the agreement on the Kosovo issue will depend to a considerable degree on the way in which this problem is regulated. This is according to head of Belgrade's negotiating team in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Borislav Stefanovic, who spoke on Thursday. "Northern Kosovo inevitable topic, key to solution" The north of the province is inhabited mostly by Serbs who reject the Pristina-based Kosovo Albanian authorities. “Northern Kosovo is a reality in Kosovo-Metohija and it is reflected in the lack of parallel institutions in the area, for which the Serbian side is often blamed, because the only institutions in Kosovo are those of the Republic of Serbia,” Stefanovic said in an interview for Tanjug a day after the fourth round of talks with the Pristina delegation in Brussels. Stefanovic believes that the statement of Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic regarding a division as a potential solution for the Kosovo-Metohija issue does not in any way affect the negotiations and cannot cause negative consequences in the process. “This is a legitimate political stand of an important political official in Belgrade. On the other hand, there seems to be a clear image both in our environment and in the international community that northern Kosovo, as a specificity of the Kosovo milieu, needs to get an adequate solution that would satisfy the needs of people who live there and enable the Kosovo issue to be solved,” Stefanovic said. “From our point of view, northern Kosovo can be solved only as an indivisible issue. All attempts at finding a partial solution to problems that exist there, which are not small although there are big problems to the south of the Ibar River as well, will not get our support because this would stultify the specificity of northern Kosovo-Metohija,” Stefanovic said.

"Northern Kosovo inevitable topic, key to solution"

The north of the province is inhabited mostly by Serbs who reject the Priština-based Kosovo Albanian authorities.

“Northern Kosovo is a reality in Kosovo-Metohija and it is reflected in the lack of parallel institutions in the area, for which the Serbian side is often blamed, because the only institutions in Kosovo are those of the Republic of Serbia,” Stefanović said in an interview for Tanjug a day after the fourth round of talks with the Priština delegation in Brussels.

Stefanović believes that the statement of Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić regarding a division as a potential solution for the Kosovo-Metohija issue does not in any way affect the negotiations and cannot cause negative consequences in the process.

“This is a legitimate political stand of an important political official in Belgrade. On the other hand, there seems to be a clear image both in our environment and in the international community that northern Kosovo, as a specificity of the Kosovo milieu, needs to get an adequate solution that would satisfy the needs of people who live there and enable the Kosovo issue to be solved,” Stefanović said.

“From our point of view, northern Kosovo can be solved only as an indivisible issue. All attempts at finding a partial solution to problems that exist there, which are not small although there are big problems to the south of the Ibar River as well, will not get our support because this would stultify the specificity of northern Kosovo-Metohija,” Stefanović said.