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SERBIAN AND KOSOVO MPs ON A JOINT VISIT TO KOSOVO MUNICIPALITIES

On January 31-February 2, 2019, CIG hosted a group of Serbian MPs who came to Kosovo in implementation of a recommendation of the CIG-organized roundtable of the MPs of Kosovo and Serbia held in Tirana in December 2018. The visit started on January 31 in Pristina with a joined discussion of the current political developments and the state of dialogue. On February 1, the group visited Strpce. This was the first such visit to a majority Serb municipality on Kosovo’s border with Macedonia. The MPs met with representatives of the local administration (both Serbs and Albanians) and directors of local businesses to learn about and to discuss the issues that the municipality is facing and how the MPs can contribute. One of the issues reviewed was the problem related to the construction of a micro hydropower plant in this municipality and the negative consequences on the environment affecting the drinking water supply. Other topics of the conversation were positive lessons from multiethnic coexistence and cooperation in Strpce as well as their cooperation with the Kosovo government. They also discussed education and especially the issue of not learning each other’s languages in the Strpce schools. Finally, the MPs paid a visit to a hotel belonging to the ski center of Brezovica (formerly a five-star resort) that has been closed since the end of the war in 1999 due to lack of investment. Local authorities and the management asked them to help resolve the political problems that are preventing investments in this major touristic site, that would jump start the local economy and make the employment sustainable in the long-term. After Strpce the MPs visited the city of Prizren including a Serbian Orthodox church there and had a discussion with the priest of the parish. On December 2, the group of the Serbian MPs on their way back to Belgrade visited North Mitrovica and met representatives of the Serb civil society to learn about the situation in Kosovo’s north and the current challenges there.