Brussels, 09/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 8 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton announced an agreement on telecommunications and energy between the Serbian and Kosovan prime ministers, Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaçi, during their meeting in Brussels. According to a European source, the agreement is “very technical” and focuses on “all the issues that were up in the air”.
On the telecommunications level, phone calls from Kosovo to Serbia will remain “local” calls and not international, and Kosovo will have an international code by 2015. “This will be finalised with the international union of telecommunications”, said a European source.
With regard to energy, the agreement will ensure there is no interruption in supply. Issues of ownership have been put aside for the moment, Dacic stated. In the view of Kosovo's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Petrit Selmi, the agreement “means up to €40 million more revenue for Kosovo's operators and the state budget on an annual basis”.
The ministers and Ashton also examined the progress made with regard to the municipal elections on 3 November and “some important decisions to ensure fair elections with the fullest possible participation in the electoral process”, said Ashton, without giving further detail. According to Dacic, it has been decided that the Serbs will have representatives in the polling stations and that they will be allowed to be listed in the register of electors.
Ashton said that the prime ministers agreed that the working group on the elections - chaired by the OSCE - will meet in the coming days, so that the decisions taken during this meeting can be “implemented in good time”.
Another meeting will take place at prime ministerial level after the elections of 3 November, according to Dacic. (CG/transl.fl)