Minister Tahiri refused to talk about Trepça in Brussels

Brussels, 20 October 2016

On 20 October 2016, a tripartite meeting was held in Brussels for the purpose of assessing the implementation of the agreements, and particularly for discussing the blockade that Serbia had made with regards to the implementation of Telecom agreement.

On this occasion, Kosovo’s Minister Tahiri said that Brussels dialogue has provided tangible results within the years, but this period is characterized by tensions especially since Serbia blocked the implementation of the telecom agreement.

Minister Tahiri asked the EU to continue with its efforts to unblock the implementation of the agreement on telecom and the agreement on energy, since both of these agreements have been discussed for five years without any results.

The Serbian side tried to raise the issue of Trepça, however it was categorically rejected by Kosovo side. According to Tahiri “Trepça is an asset and property of Kosovo and as such, we do not talk about it with anyone”.

Tahiri further said that “this issue is not discussed and will never be discussed in the dialogue”. She then continued “a party cannot impose the opening of topics in the dialogue without the consent of both parties; a basic principle of dialogue in Brussels which is based on respect of jurisdictions of both states”.