PM Denies Kurti’s Claims of Unpaid Utility Bills

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/SLOBODAN MILJEVIC)

On Feb. 13, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic denied claims made by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that north Kosovo Serbs have been refusing to pay for utilities for decades.

The back-and-forth – which took place on Twitter – began with Kurti alleging that “the parallel [power] structures” in northern Kosovo “controlled by Serbia” have, since 1999, cost Kosovo tax payers a total of EUR320 million in unpaid electricity bills and EUR17 million in unpaid water bills.

Brnabic responded by calling these claims yet another example of “the magnitude and brazenness of Albin Kurti’s lies.”

Brnabic’s message followed a response to Kurti issued by Petar Petkovic, the director of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, who maintained that “Belgrade financially supported north Kosovo’s power supply for two decades,” and between November 2009 and December 2020 alone allocated EUR171 million for this purpose.

Petkovic’s tweet followed Kurti’s, according to which “parallel [power] structures [in north Kosovo are] preventing the collection of power supply fees and are hindering the implementation of the energy agreement reached in the [Belgrade-Pristina] dialogue ten years ago.”