UNMIK/PR/943
Pristina/Belgrade – SRSG Michael Steiner met yesterday for the first time with the new Serbian PM Zoran Zivkovic. “We had a good meeting and I see a scope for future cooperation”, said the SRSG after the talks.
SRSG Michael Steiner and PM Zoran Zivkovic discussed issues such as the transfer of competencies, minority issues and the return process.
Speaking to the media about his meeting with Mr. Zivkovic, the SRSG said that the transfer of authority to the Provisional Institutions would continue as the UN Security Council (UNSC) had called for it in its Presidential Statement of the last Security Council meeting on Kosovo in February 2003. “The Security Council requested that this process should conclude by the end of this year.”
The SRSG pointed out that the transfer would happen according to the UNSC Resolution 1244. The transfer would complete the implementation of the Constitutional Framework. “Nothing will be transferred outside or beyond the Constitutional Framework”, said the SRSG and mentioned the reserved powers of the UN as foreign policy, security, judiciary and minority rights.
The transfer of authority will, as SRSG Michael Steiner made clear, be closely observed by UNMIK. “You have to be competent to take competencies”, he said and underlined that as the transfer increases, UNMIK might have to intervene if necessary – as it just happened this week, when the SRSG determined that the position, which the Assembly had adopted on unpromulgated draft legislation on Higher Education, had no legal effect.
SRSG Michael Steiner further said in his press conference in Belgrade that the situation on returns is improving in Kosovo. Although there were still a lot of difficulties, the development in the past months was encouraging. “If you look at the process, if you look at the preparations for making returns possible, for making possible that people live in the places where they come from, the situation is getting better despite all difficulties.”