BELGRADE – State Secretary at the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, Oliver Ivanović, stated that it is wrong to classify Serbian institutions in Kosovo and Metohija as parallel, as stated in the Kosovo Progress Report of the European Commission, because these are the only institutions the Serbs participate and trust in.

Commenting the part of the report which, according to the Priština media, notes that the official Belgrade maintains parallel institutions in Kosovo and Metohija, and that Kosovo Government does not control its entire territory, Ivanović told the Tanjug Agency that there is no other alternative to those institutions and that they are not an impediment to the democratic development - if Priština has such intentions at all.

The State Secretary said that the EC report confirms the position of Serbian officials that there is no freedom of expression in Kosovo and Metohija, that the courts of law are under political influence and that there is corruption.

According to him, this document emphasizes lack of cooperation of Kosovo authorities with EULEX.

“The essence of the whole problem is that the Kosovo Albanians are declaratively saying that they are ready to cooperate with EULEX on all the issues, but in practice there is no such cooperation,” Ivanović said.

He assessed that street protests against the EULEX were subtly supported by many representatives of Kosovo political parties, who harbor private concerns that the EC could come across information about the strong connection between the organized crime and people in power.

Ivanović stated that Serbia is especially concerned that the EC underlined in their report that there are many unresolved cases of violation of property right of the Serbs, but that at the same time it did not propose solutions of this issue. 

This is a serious problem and I think that EULEX will have to take over more executive powers on the issue, said Ivanović recalling that currently there are some 18,000 outstanding cases in courts related to illegally usurped property of the Serbs, damages compensations and fraudulent transactions.