Technical talks in Brussels on Telecom and Energy
Brussels, 6 February 2013
On February 4, 2013, the Republic of Kosovo delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri, held a special meeting with EU representatives Pier Mirel and Nicholas Cendrowitz regarding energy and telecommunications. On February 5, 2013 a trilateral meeting about these issues was held in the EU headquarters in Brussels.
In these meetings, Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri asked the European Union to increase its engagement in reaching an agreement on energy and telecommunications, which have now been under discussion for almost two years. “Kosovo is officially working hard to implement the Athens Energy Treaty, but Serbia is violating the Treaty, and this has been officially noted by the Secretary of the Athens Community. Serbia has been asked to stop illegal intervention in Kosovo’s energy transmission system and to pay compensation for damages caused up to now,” said Ms. Tahiri.
In addition, she outlined the need to normalize payments by energy consumers, especially in the northern part of the country, who have avoided their obligations to KEK for a long time. Tahiri said that Kosovo is cooperating constructively on energy with all regional countries and could do the same with Serbia, but on the condition that Serbia stop its illegal intervention and in particular, dismantle illegal energy structures.
With regard to discussion on telecommunications, Tahiri paid particular attention to the country telephone code, saying that the codes 383 or 384 belong to Kosovo, since the time when ITU set aside 8 telephone codes for the eight federal units of former-Yugoslavia. She requested greater commitment from the EU in resolving the issue of the telephone code and she added that Serbia’s obstruction and hindering of this goal are not in the spirit of inter-state dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.
In addition, the Kosovo delegation said it was essential to stop the activities of Serbia’s illegal operators in Kosovo’s territory, insisting that this issue must be resolved as soon as possible through dialogue, so that there is no need for other measures to resolve this problem.
There was no significant alignment of positions in the meeting, and it was decided to continue with meetings in the coming days. During the meeting, the Kosovo delegation presented its criticisms of the Serbian party which annulled its participation in the January meeting, one day before, and they requested more appropriate behavior. The Kosovo delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri included the following: Ms. Elona Cecelia, political advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Tahiri, Mr. Fadil Ismajli, Chief Executive of KOSTT, Mr. Naim Bejtullahu, Deputy Director-General of KOSTT, Mr. Arben Gjukaj, KEK Chief Executive, Ms. Merita Kostori, board member of the Energy Regulatory Office, Mr. Ekrem Hoxha, head of the Board of the Regulatory Authority of Electronic and Post Communications (RAEPC), Mr. Ilir Imeri, head of the Telecommunications Department in RAEPC