Belgrade and Pristina fail to reach agreement on energy

Belgrade and Pristina fail to reach agreement on energy

"Pristina did not accept for the community of Serb municipalities and the Electric Power Industry of Serbia to establish a new company that would deal with distribution of electricity in the north of Kosovo and Metohija and they bear the responsibility for not having much success today," he told the press in Brussels on Monday.

Djuric and Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic had a several- hour meeting with Pristina's delegation, headed by Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri. The meeting also included collaborators of EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

“We could not accept that Serbia's considerable property in Kosovo be pulled out of our framework," he noted.

Djuric also said that by opposing the establishment of the new company members of the Pristina delegation violated the provisions from the Brussels agreement and the Action Plan for its implementation agreed on earlier.

He also said that "it would be fair if opening of chapters and Serbia's EU integration did not suffer because Pristina has dealt a blow to the normalization of relations."

Another problem he mentioned was that Pristina was "ignoring the setting up of the community of Serb municipalities."

Head of Pristina's delegation, Edita Tahiri, said that "the Serbian side came up with new demands that are contrary to the agreement on energy reached earlier."

According to her, "Serbia asked to have distribution of electricity in the north, and that it should be done by Elektrokosmet."

According to Tahiri, the Pristina delegation "did not accept that."

Civil defense

Marko Djuric also stated that Pristina has violated the agreement on civil defense in northern Kosovo, "as members of the Civil Defense have not got the positions Pristina promised them."

"I believe that the normalization process has been jeopardized the moment Pristina refused to discuss the community of Serb municipalities, despite it being the first element of the Brussels agreement and the first point of the Action Plan," Djuric told the press in Brussels after meeting with Pristina's delegation.

"It is on the great powers now to decide how they will treat Serbia, and we think that neither the opening of chapter 35 (which regards Kosovo as part of the accession negotiations) nor the entire process of European integration should suffer consequences of Pristina's stubborn and inconsistent attitude," Djuric said.