The political representatives of the Albanians from the southern part of Central Serbia met in Belgrade with the Prime Minister and other government officials. The discussion topics included solving the problems in those municipalities, which the Albanian leaders, earlier this year, defined in the joint platform, which was adopted by the Serbian government under the title of the “7-point platform”.  

The discussion between representatives of the Serbian government and leaders of the Albanian parties ended with an agreement, according to which such meetings would become a tradition and would be held every 3 months, so that the results of the measures taken could be analyzed at them.  “These discussions will include 13 ministries”, said Zoran Stankovic, President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. Mr. Stankovic also said that the first meeting should be held with the Minister of Health at the end of October and that the topic of discussion would include healthcare of the citizens of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

 On that occasion, Mr. Stankovic also stated:

"The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted 7 topics for discussion with  the Albanians. They were classified into groups, such as for example security, economic issues, healthcare, education, justice and all those vital issues that they felt needed to be discussed within the framework of the Constitution, the laws and the  international conventions governing in this area.

Riza Haljimi, MP and Leader of the Party for Democratic Action, said that the meeting was a proper one, and that he was more optimistic after it than before it.

"I am more optimistic upon completion of the meeting than I was prior to it, given the atmosphere before the meeting," said Mr. Haljimi.

It was said at the meeting of representatives of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Albanian representatives that the relevant ministries had been given specific task and that they would solve all the pressing issues in collaboration with the local authorities. It was said that the development of South Serbia was important to the Prime Minister and that the ministers would visit it for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the measures for addressing the citizens’ problems.  

Source: RTS1 and the Coordination Body