Kosovo is poised to sign an agreement with Serbia to supply energy to the Serb-majority municipalities of North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic.
Kosovo negotiator Besnik Bislim announced on Facebook that the two parties are close to a deal, after meeting with Serbian representatives in Istanbul.
“Kosovo is very close to finalizing an agreement to launch the implementation of the energy roadmap, which aims to put on the track the problems of energy supply and payment in the four municipalities in the north of the country,” he wrote.
Serbs living in the norths four municipalities have not paid for electricity since the end of the Kosovo-Serbia war, which led to Kosovo’s independence.
But in November 2021, Kosovo’s energy network operator KOSSTT announced it would stop supplying Serb-majority municipalities with free electricity. The decision came after an €11 million agreement to subsidize power in these regions expired last year.
“Any eventual agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on the issue of energy, will not change even a single comma beyond what was already agreed in Brussels in 2013 and 2015,” Bislim declared on Facebook.
Serbia and Kosovo had reached an initial deal in 2015 within the framework of the EU-facilitated dialogue Kosovo-Serbia. According to that deal a Belgrade-backed company would be in charge of supplying energy to the four municipalities in the north.
