Vulin: Election could slow down creation of ZSO

STRPCE - Serbia's Minister Without Portfolio in charge of Kosovo Aleksandar Vulin said in Strpce on Tuesday that the planned parliamentary election in Kosovo could slow down the creation of the community of Serb municipalities (ZSO).

The agreement on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina from April 19 last year states that the ZSO should be established after local elections in Kosovo, he told reporters.

The pace of the creation of the ZSO could be affected by the fact that the Kosovo palirament will not be able to adopt the necessary legislation because of the coming parliamentary election, he explained.

Another negative influence could be the ambitions of ethnic Albanian political parties to prevent the ZSO from being formed in its full scope, that is with all the powers listed in the agreement from Brussels, Vulin pointed out.

"We will be persistent and do our best for the ZSO to be established as soon as possible," he noted, adding that Serbian officials would insist in talks with EU officials that political issues, regardless of which party they were related to, should not influence the creation of the ZSO, because "the position of the Serbs in Kosovo is not a party issue, but a civilizational one."

The ZSO will be defined through laws, have its own statute, structure, bodies and budget, so it could care for the everyday life of the Kosovo Serbs, he stated.

"According to the Brussels agreement, the ZSO has executive authority in healthcare, education, urban planning and economic development," he said, adding that the role should be recognized by both the EU and the provisional government in Pristina.

Serbia wants the ZSO to be up and running as soon as possible...