Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Đurić: Trepča can count on the support of the Government of Serbia

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić said today that the workers of Trepča can count on all kinds of support from the Government of Serbia, adding that the provincial law on Trepča produces no legal effect since it was nullified by the relevant decision of the Government of Serbia.

During his visit to the Trepča miners in Leposavić, Đurić conveyed the message that Trepča can count on the support from the Government of Serbia, not only in political but also in legal and financial terms.

"This is our duty and we will comply with it in order to enable Trepča to continue to operate. And that's the most important message - Trepča can count on Serbia and the government of Serbia for the political, legal, economical and any other support," Đurić said.

Commenting on the decision of the Provincial Constitutional Court, which reacted to the adoption of the Law on Trepča, Đurić said that the provincial judiciary certainly amuses him because court decisions are published on media portals before they are pronounced by a court of law.

"For us, such a decision has no legal effect whatsoever. Both the decision and that whole business with that miscreant law were anyway nullified by the decision the Government of Serbia, and for us the most important thing is that production and everyday life will continue, and that the Serbian government will ensure the persistence of Trepča and of the functioning of the system, as well as continue to support these people throughout 2017 regardless of the events," Đurić said.

Đurić clarified that political support to Trepča includes all measure that need to be taken to ensure that Trepča remain in the hands of the local people.

"As to the economic measures, they mean that the Serbian government would plan the 2017 budget so as to include the support measures and allocate funds to implement the project announced by the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic during the visit of Trepča: the construction of a new factory for batteries. Regardless of the difficult circumstances, we will carry on with this project whose aim is to create more jobs for all those who live here," he said.

Legal measures involve support to the shareholders and to all others who want to protect their interests before national and international institutions.

"Serbia stands by Trepča, Serbia stands by the Trepča employees and by its people who live here. We will not allow that anything that belongs to the people, anything that the people have created and turned it into the backbone of the economy in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, ceases to work," Đurić said.

Those attacking Trepča and its stability are threatening or attempting to threaten the very existence of the entire Serbian nation in this part of Kosovo and Metohija, warned the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

Đurić recalled that over 50,000 Serbs have lost the jobs they held in the public sector or the social and state-owned enterprises in Kosovo and Metohija since 1999, merely on the grounds of their ethnicity and this was what pressed them into the exodus.

Director of Trepča North Jovan Dimkić stated that the primary objective was preserving economic stability.

"Our production remains as planned and we have a stable situation in the company, which can only be disturbed by external factors such as the adoption of the Law on Trepča. We're trying to redirect the ball from the political terrain back to the field of economy, and to open talks with the authorities so as to find a solution for the future functioning of Trepča ", he said.

Dimkić reiterated that the Law on Trepča was harmful and practically unenforceable since it is conducive to the collapse of production in the "Trepča North“.

After visiting the Trepča Flotation in Leposavić, Đurić talked with the workers, trade unions and the management of Trepča.