Trepca

Kosovo's mining giant Trepca owes hundreds of thousands of euros to its miners in terms of union fees, pension funds and health insurance, BIRN has found out.

Trepca enterprise deducts 1 per cent of each miner's salary as a union membership fee, but has never transferred this money to the unions, creating a large debt. 

Vucic said on Tuesday that the Serbian government rejected Pristina's decision to put the Trepca complex in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo under its control.

"This mining complex is vital for the survival of Serbs in the north of Kosovo… For us, this decision is null and void," Vucic told a press conference in Belgrade.

"Goal is to force Serbs to leave talks"

BELGRADE -- "The essential objective" of the latest developments in Kosovo is for Serbs to leave "the negotiations and local institutions," says Milivoje Mihajlovic.

"Serbia's property can't be taken without asking"

BELGRADE -- The Serbian government is "acting responsibly over the Trepca case and other property issues in Kosovo and Metohija, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said.

"Everyone must understand that they cannot take away everything from Serbia without asking anything," Tanjug quoted him as saying on Sunday.

Agenda of Brussels meeting "still not agreed"

BELGRADE -- Ivica Dacic said Thursday that the agenda of a new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina had not yet been drawn up.

Serbia expects the implementation of the Brussels agreement to continue from where it was left off, said the country's foreign minister.

BELGRADE - Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Thursday that the agenda of a new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina had not yet been drawn up and that Serbia expected the implementation of the Brussels agreement to continue from where it was left off.

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic has dismissed claims that Serbia is making the Brussels dialogue conditional on Pristina giving up on nationalising the Trepca mine.

Serbia "not setting conditions for dialogue"

UZICE, BRUSSELS, PRISTINA -- Serbia is not setting any conditions, "on the contrary, it shows with each step how much it cares and is working on regional cooperation,"says Zoran Mihajlovic.

PRISTINA - The Kosovo government said Tuesday that the Mining, Metallurgical and Chemical Combine Trepca was "Kosovo's property" and that any attempt to create confusion that it was allegedly given up was malicious.

PRISTINA - The Kosovo assembly has passed a bill amending the law on reorganising certain public enterprises and introducing changes to their property - however, the bill does not include the Mining, Metallurgical and Chemical Combine Trepca.

Sixty-four assembly members voted for the bill late Monday, four voted against, while two abstained.