The Serbian government decided to dismiss and then appoint new members and heads of provisional authorities in Klina, Kosovo Polje, Podujevo, and Leposavic. Even though this is standard practice for the Government of Serbia, that is, decisions that have been made regularly for the past decade, and contrary to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Serbia, the latest personnel decisions have troubled Pristina. They say that it amounts to a violation of the Brussels Agreement, as well as Kosovo’s.
„Serbia’s latest move: Appointing officials in illegal municipal bodies in Klina, Kosovo Polje, Podujevo and Leposavic. This is blatant violation and disregard for the Brussels agreement and sovereignty of Kosovo is exemplary of institutional aggression only applied by Russia in Ukraine,“ the Chief of Staff to the Kosovo President, Blerim Vela, said today.
Vela commented on personnel decisions undertaken by the Government of Serbia, adopted at the 67th session that was held on July 27th, while also sharing photos of the documents, which can be found on the Serbian government’s website, which the Serbian-language media have not yet reported on.
The decisions in question are related to the dismissal and appointment of members of the Provisional Authorities – institutions that are illegal for Pristina.
Thus, according to a decision signed by the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, on July 27 in Leposavic, Rados Mihajlovic was relieved of his duties as a member of the Provisional Authority, and Dalibor Milunovic was appointed in his place.
For now, it is not known on which basis the new member will perform his duties, given that the special units of the Kosovo Police have been staying in the municipal premises in Leposavic, as well as in Zubin Potok and Zvecan, for more than two months now.
According to another decision taken by the Government of Serbia, Zivorad Vuksanovic was dismissed from his position as a member of the Provisional Authority of the Municipality of Podujevo, and Srdjan Vuksanovic was appointed.
In the Provisional Authority of the Municipality of Kosovo Polje, Milos Cirkovic has now assumed the role of a member of this institution after Miroslav Velickovic was dismissed.
The Provisional Authority in Klina got two new members – Sanja Kostic and Sasa Sarkovic, while Stojan Doncic and Nenad Stasic were dismissed.
At the same session, on July 27, the Government of Serbia adopted a decision on the appointment of members of the Council of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education of the University of Kosovska Mitrovica, which overrode the previous decision, as well as on the appointment of members of the Council of the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Pristina. Read more about the expert Serb staff at this academic institution in a separate news piece.
Vela did not comment on these decisions.
Provisional municipal bodies have existed for a decade now after the Government of Serbia previously dissolved the assemblies, despite the decisions of the Constitutional Court
The municipal assemblies in Kosovo that had operated within the legal framework of the Republic of Serbia were dissolved in 2013 by the government of Serbia, which had been formed just one year earlier, after local elections held on the 6th of May. After their dissolution, again by decision of the Government of Serbia, provisional bodies were formed.
The decision to dissolve municipalities in the north of Kosovo was made ahead of the local elections within the system of the Republic of Kosovo, which were held (at least de-facto) for the first time in that part of Kosovo. Although according to the Law on Local Self-Government of Serbia, the President of the Assembly was obliged to call elections for local councillors within two months from the date of dissolution of these municipalities, to constitute a new unit of local self-government, but this did not happen.
The role of local self-governments in the system of the Republic of Serbia was then taken over by provisional bodies – 29 of which were planned to be formed – which function simultaneously with the municipalities in the Kosovo system. Moreover, there are (were) frequent cases where the president of a provisional body, for example, also served as a councillor or deputy mayor in a municipality under the Kosovo system.
In the meantime, on April 3rd, 2014, the Constitutional Court of Serbia declared the decision on the dissolution of the MA Podujevo, Djakovica, Suva Reka, Decani, Prizren, Urosevac and Klina („Official Gazette of RS“, 42/10) and the formation of provisional bodies authorities as unconstitutional and illegal.
In late 2019, the Government of Serbia also adopted a series of personnel decisions by which it appointed officials of Srpska Lista, as well as non-party figures, to one or more positions in the Serbian system.
The majority of those appointed from SL, until they left Kosovo’s institutions in November of last year, held positions in the Kosovo system as well.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
