“Pristina stop fake news,” the head of the Kosovo Office, Petar Petkovic, reacted on Twitter after the Kosovo PM accused “Serbia-controlled parallel structures” of not allowing electricity and water billing in the north.
In a series of Twitter posts, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti declared last night that citizens in the north understand that paying for basic utilities like electricity and water is normal, also noting that they are entitled to live “free from organized crime, pressure and threats by Serbia-led illegal structures.”
Kurti accused these structures, along with official Belgrade of allegedly „costing“ citizens and taxpayers in the rest of the country 320 million euros in unpaid energy bills and 17 million euros in water supply bills since 1999. Furthermore, he alleged that they also „obstruct“ the implementation of an energy agreement reached in the dialogue 10 years ago.
“Without no incentive to save, consumption in these municipalities increased 70+% in a decade, partly due to drug farming and crypto mining.”
According to him, since 1999, Kosovo has lost more than 300 million euros due to Serbia’s actions – such as withholding transmission fees and forcing traders to pay VAT to Serbia on electricity trade.
“Even now, Belgrade’s refusal to allow trade on the Kosovo-Serbia costs Kosovo up to 10 million euros a month,” (sic) he claims.
“Lie and nothing but lies from Albin Kurti,” the head of the Kosovo Office, Petar Petkovic, shortly reacted to Kurti’s accusations.
“For two decades, Belgrade had financially supported electricity consumption in the north of Kosovo and, just as an example, between November 2009 and December 2020, we allocated 171 million euros for that purpose,” Petkovic stated.
That is why Kurti, according to Petkovic, should find “another excuse for empty treasury” and stop lying and “criminalizing“ Serbs.
He also addressed the recent statements of Kurti’s deputy Pristina’s main negotiator for the dialogue in Belgrade, Besnik Bislimi, who accused the company „Elektrosever“, as well as the EU, of not implementing the Energy Roadmap, approved by Belgrade and Pristina on June 21st of last year.
„The only one responsible for non-implementation of the energy Road Map is Pristina, which doesn’t want to allocate distributive services to Elektrosever. PR stop fake news!“ Petkovic stressed.
Previously, Elektrosever also denied Bislimi’s allegations, stating that the authorities in Pristina do not want the company to acquire the right to distribution services, despite the fact this was agreed in Brussels precisely through the Energy Roadmap, and confirmed by the European Energy Community.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
