Government “could have stopped referendum”

Serbian parliament's EU Integration Committee Chairman Laslo Varga has stated that the government could have prevented the referendum in northern Kosovo. He added that a way to do it was to dissolve the local authorities. Government “could have stopped referendum” “The government has legal means at its disposal to dissolve the local-self governments that function illegally. If it had wanted to, it could have taken these steps regarding the calling of the referendum, but it did not do it due to political reasons,” Varga told Novi Sad-based Hungarian language daily Magyar Szo. He repeated that the Serbian government, even though it had not supported the referendum in the last several weeks, had “explicitly and tacitly” supported the resistance and barricades in northern Kosovo since last summer. Varga assessed that the referendum in the north would affect the European Council’s decision on Serbia’s EU candidate status to a minimal degree only because the criteria system and the referendum were not directly linked. “There is, however, a much bigger problem than this, and that is that if northern Kosovo Serbs indeed keep insisting on the results of the referendum it would disable implementation of an earlier agreement between Belgrade and Pristina,” he was quoted as saying. The parliament's EU Integration Committee chairman stressed that non-fulfillment of the agreement on the integrated joint control of the borders, which envisages both Kosovo Albanian and Serbian customs officers at the two crossings in northern Kosovo, could affect Serbia’s EU integration process. “If the government decides to implement the agreement with Pristina it will do so because it has necessary means at its disposal. It does not have the police means but the financing can be used as means of coercion too, just like the police means,” he pointed out, adding that the northern Kosovo municipalities functioned thanks to the Serbian state budget. Beta

Government “could have stopped referendum”

“The government has legal means at its disposal to dissolve the local-self governments that function illegally. If it had wanted to, it could have taken these steps regarding the calling of the referendum, but it did not do it due to political reasons,” Varga told Novi Sad-based Hungarian language daily Magyar Szo.

He repeated that the Serbian government, even though it had not supported the referendum in the last several weeks, had “explicitly and tacitly” supported the resistance and barricades in northern Kosovo since last summer.

Varga assessed that the referendum in the north would affect the European Council’s decision on Serbia’s EU candidate status to a minimal degree only because the criteria system and the referendum were not directly linked.

“There is, however, a much bigger problem than this, and that is that if northern Kosovo Serbs indeed keep insisting on the results of the referendum it would disable implementation of an earlier agreement between Belgrade and Priština,” he was quoted as saying.

The parliament's EU Integration Committee chairman stressed that non-fulfillment of the agreement on the integrated joint control of the borders, which envisages both Kosovo Albanian and Serbian customs officers at the two crossings in northern Kosovo, could affect Serbia’s EU integration process.

“If the government decides to implement the agreement with Priština it will do so because it has necessary means at its disposal. It does not have the police means but the financing can be used as means of coercion too, just like the police means,” he pointed out, adding that the northern Kosovo municipalities functioned thanks to the Serbian state budget.