Serbian Prime Minister on Kosovo Tax, Priorities for Future Government

Ana Brnabic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Feb. 11 said that Kosovo's tax on goods from Serbia had harmed both Serbian and Kosovo citizens and that the citizens of both countries would stay in their countries if a different perspective was offered.

Asked by reporters on Kosovo  Prime MInister Albin Kurtis announcement that the tax would be lifted coupled with "reciprocal steps," Brnabic said that it was important to leave the past  behind and offer citizens a different outlook because the taxes had also harmed Kosovo citizens by increasing prices and not leading to the creation of new jobs.

"If we do not offer citizens a different outlook, they will leave the country. This is not the way to head into the future," she said.

Serbia's prime minister said that reforms of public companies remained a priority for the future government and that her cabinet had not paid enough attention to this because it was involved in other reforms. "Reforms of public companies have not gone fast enough because the Serbian Cabinet was engaged in reforms of other areas which it believed were bigger priorities," Brnabic said.