EULEX doesn't support Feith plan

EULEX Chief Yves de Kermabon said to Serbian minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic that the EU mission "does not support Peter Feith's plan"

(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, March 04, 2010

Bogdanovic said at a press conference in Belgrade that EULEX Chief Yves de Kermabon told him that EULEX and the EU will not support violent or imposed solutions in northern Kosovo, where Serbs make up the majority.

The plan for the "integration of northern Kosovo" was prepared by the International Civil Office (ICO), headed by Feith, and the Kosovo Albanian government in Pristina.

Feith is also EU's special representative in Kosovo.

The plan in question seeks to bring the Serb areas north of the Ibar River under Pristina's control, and has been rejected both by local Serbs and official Belgrade.

Bogdanovic also said that the Serbian government and EULEX will form a work group that will deal with technical questions in the sectors of customs, justice and police in Kosovo, and that meetings of these groups will intensify in the coming weeks.

Justice Ministry State Secretary Slobodan Homen also met with Kermabon and told journalists that an accent was put on the protection of rights for Kosovo Serbs in their talks, along with the functioning of legal institutions and the return of trust in the legal system.

Asked whether there was talk about which the legal system the Serb justice institutions, e.g., the Kosovska Mitrovica District Court, will work under, Homen said that there was no discussion about this, and that the talks were of a technical nature, adding that Belgrade's stance is "clear on that issue".

Bogdanovic said that he talked with the EULEX chief about all the topics that burden the relations between EULEX and Belgrade.

He said that in order to find a solution for the well-being of all citizens in Kosovo, there was talk at the meeting about the daily lives of Serbs and other non-Albanians, the security situation and the problems with electricity supply.