Four north Kosovo municipalities hold inaugural sessions

Both the premises, where the signing ceremony was held, and the statements, which the mayors and councilors signed, had no state symbol. The signing ceremony in all four north Kosovo municipalities - North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic was held behind the closed doors. North Mitrovica Mayor Krstimir Pantic, who had earlier resigned as deputy director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo, and a number of North Mitrovica councilors did not sign the statement. Nebojsa Vlajic, one of the councilors who signed the statement in Zvecan on Saturday evening, told thr press that his fellow councilors, Mayor Vucina Jankovic and he made ceremonial statements and thus took office. “As of tonight, we can consider the bodies of the municipality of Zvecan constituted,” he said. Asked whether the statements they signed had any symbols of Kosovo's statehood, Vlajic said that there were no symbols at all, adding that the upper part of the statement was covered with a sticker so it was impossible to see what was beneath it. “I tried to remove the sticker, but it was impossible without damaging the document. I believe that the statement was status-neutral,” Vlajic said. The ethnic Albanian councilors in the municipality of North Mitrovica were given written statements bearing the symbols of the statehood of Kosovo. The entire process of inaugural sessions in the four municipalities was observed by representatives of the EU Office in Kosovo, the OSCE Mission and the Kosovo Ministry of Local Government Administration, and they will assess the legality of the procedure. The sessions were held after consultations, which lasted the entire day, between Serb representatives and officials of the EU Office in Kosovo.