Vulin: Talks to start on Serb municipalities

Aleksandar Vulin, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo, said Monday that he expects crucial topics, such as how the community of Serb municipalities would function, will be opened during the coming talks in Brussels.

(kosovocompromisestuff) Monday, February 18, 2013

Appearing on Radio Television of Serbia, he said that in previous rounds, Belgrade and Pristina negotiated about the implementation of agreements reached and signed before the formation of the incumbent government. "We will be satisfied if we settle how the community of Serb municipalities will operate, if we know what their competencies are, if we know who chooses the police, who determines certain local competencies," said Vulin. Asked whether the community would have autonomy inside Kosovo or inside Serbia, Vulin said it would be the latter. He explained Serbia will pass a constitutional law on the essential autonomy of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and a corresponding law for the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Commenting on Tomislav Nikolic's statement that "through the Kosovo Constitution, but also through the Serbian Constitution, Serb institutions become institutions of Kosovo run by the Serbs," Vulin said this was the Serbian president's way of explaining the government Resolution and parliamentary Platform on Kosovo. "We did not say we will ask Pristina to become a part of Belgrade, but we are asking for essential autonomy for the Serbs, who should be given the opportunity to choose all of their institutions and to do this based on laws which will be adopted by the Serbian parliament," said Vulin. He said that when he invited the Serbs "to be where the decisions about them are being made," he was referring to Brussels and the talks in which Kosovo's status is being decided, because the government has opened the door to their involvement.