Brussels, May 18, 2013
The delegation of the Republic of Kosovo, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri, head of technical dialogue, stayed yesterday in Brussels where she attended the next meeting of the technical dialogue with Serbia on telecom and energy issues.
With the mediation of representatives of the EU, Pierre Mirel and Nicholas Cendrowicz, the meeting discussed a range of issues in the field of telecom and energy with the goal of achieving cooperation agreements and resolving problems between the two countries.
After the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri said that negotiations were intense and focused as the two sides held constructive and creative positions, which resulted in significant progress in approximating the positions between the parties, while there are still some issues to be discussed in the next stages.
Speaking of concrete progress, Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri said that the major progress in the field of telecom is that Serbia has agreed that Kosovo obtains its national dialling code, so it is agreed that it removes the obstacles against Kosovo so far. This agreement paves the way that ITU designates Kosovo a national dial code that Kosovo has been entitled to ever since it was a federal unit of Yugoslavia, so we expect that the code 383 or 384 will soon be assigned to Kosovo, ” said Ms. Tahiri.
Deputy Prime Minister Tahiri stressed that there was some progress in the field of energy, highlighting the most important two. Firstly, that Serbia has recognized the independence of the system of electrical transmission of the Republic of Kosovo, which opens opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in this field as well as it gives an end to violations that Serbia has made against the Athens Treaty in relation to energy with Kosovo. At the same time, it shows that Serbia has agreed to the official conclusion of the Athens Community Secretariat for violations and non-compensation for use of the transmission network in Kosovo for many years. Secondly, it was agreed to establish a tripartite committee to assess the compensation that Serbia should make to Kosovo for financial losses incurred during the use of Kosovo electricity transmission lines for transit needs and for the create congestions , which according to international rules, the states are obliged to compensate. She also said that if the committee would not yield results, the parties have agreed that the issue of compensation will be addressed through international arbitration.
She also announced that the Serbian side has asked to licence a mobile operator in Kosovo in the field of telecommunications, but this request was rejected by the Kosovar party because based on the laws of Kosovo those of EU on licensing mobile operators the principles of competition should be with an international bidding. We have made ourselves available to respond with solutions that are in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kosovo and European standards,” said Ms. Tahiri.
Further, she said that parties have expressed their consent for agreements for interoperability / interconnection in energy and telecom, which will be of mutual benefit, and mobile operators are encouraged by both countries to reach roaming agreements so that citizens are offered with the most favourable prices of cellular services. The cooperation between regulatory authorities of both countries in these areas has also been discussed.
Negotiations in the technical dialogue framework will continue in subsequent stages, and if no final agreement can be reached then the matter will be dealt with at the meeting of the two Prime Ministers with the EU mediation,” said Ms. Tahiri, adding that telecom and energy issues is being discussed for more than two years and expressed confidence that the Agreement for normalization of relations will give this process a push forward.
Last modified: July 31, 2022