Petkovic: Essence of agreement from Ohrid is ZSO formation, it's a prerequisite for everything

Photo: Handout photo

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic said in Brussels, after Thursday's round of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina held at the level of the main negotiators, that the essence of the Ohrid agreement is the formation of the ZSO (Community of Serb Municipalities) and that, when we talk about the implementation of the Ohrid agreement, this is the topic and foundation for the normalization process.

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"The topic is the ZSO, when we talk about the implementation of the agreement from Ohrid, it is a topic because without it we cannot move forward. The EU knows this well, it is the basis for the normalization process, but I also explained that you cannot shut down Serbian institutions in order to expel Serbs, and on the other hand say that you are ready to talk about the ZSO? In what way? By there no longer being Serbian institutions? That's why (prime minister of Pristina's institutions) Albin Kurti is doing it, because he doesn't want the ZSO, and that's why he is going in the direction of expelling Serbs," said Petkovic.

Answering a journalist's question about fulfilling the obligations from the Ohrid agreement, he said that Kurti does not want the ZSO, while that the main issue for Belgrade is the formation of the ZSO.

"For us, the main topic is the ZSO - the main and basic issue of that agreement and the implementation plan, where we know our obligations. We know that there are many things that we need to do together, but above all everyone knows that the formation of the ZSO is a prerequisite for all of this," Petkovic stressed.

He added that Belgrade is meeting the obligations from the agreements reached in the dialogue with Pristina, while the Pristina side has not formed the ZSO since 2013.

"Belgrade's obligations will be fulfilled as we have fulfilled all our other obligations until now. There is no problem there. But do you know where there is a problem? There is a problem when you have an agreement from Brussels that was reached in 2013, in the first six points of that agreement there is the demand to form the ZSO. So you have that agreement that is ratified by the Pristina parliament with a two-third majority, where it then becomes a primary obligation according to your internal law and rules, but you won't implement it for 11 years," noted Petkovic.

Petkovic also said that there is no kind of readiness by Pristina to implement anything from the dialogue.

"When the question arises as to what Belgrade should do, and you have the Brussels agreement where Belgrade fulfilled all its obligations, and on the other hand you have Pristina, which is not implementing the most important points from the agreement, the backbone of the dialogue, which is the ZSO, it clearly shows you who wants to participate in the dialogue, and who doesn't. There are numerous things that we need to do, but the prerequisite for that is to start with the formation of the ZSO," Petkovic reiterated.

He pointed out that unless the ZSO is set up, there is a possibility that there will be no Serbs in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)