Head of Office for KiM talks with German parliamentarians

BELGRADE - Director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric talked on Wednesday with a delegation of the German Bundestag, informing them about the developments in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, and the recent agreement on the judiciary in the northern part of the province.

The agreement is good for the Serb community and establishment of the rule of law in northern Kosovo-Metohija, Djuric said.

In talks with the members of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South-Eastern Europe in the Bundestag, led by Chair Peter Weiss, Djuric described the difficulties facing the Serbian negotiators in the dialogue process, and illustrated Pristina's lack of flexibility with examples, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija stated in a release.

The most drastic example of that was its unwillingness to change the legal framework, without which there can be no coherent implementation of the agreements Belgrade and Pristina reached so far in a number of fields, Djuric said.

The German parliamentarians were interested in the pace of return of the expelled and internally displaced persons from Kosovo-Metohija, the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija, and posed a number of questions in relation to the rule of law, security in the province and Belgrade's position on the status of Kosovo-Metohija, notes the release.

Djuric elaborated on Serbia's position, stipulated in the Constitution, adding that such a stand should not be an obstacle to establishing better relations between Belgrade and Pristina, and intensifying various forms of cooperation in an effort to improve living conditions for all citizens of Kosovo-Metohija.