Serbs Call off Boycott of Kosovo Parliament

Kosovo Serb politicians on Thursday agreed to return to the country's parliament and government after receiving assurances in discussions that their coalition agreement will be respected.

Prime Minister Mustafa on Friday named Dalibor Jevtic from the Srpska List as the replacement for Aleksandar Jablanovic, the Minister for Returns and Communities who was removed two months ago.

Jevtic held a top position in the Independent Liberal Party, SLS, the biggest Serb minority party in Kosovo. He also served as Minister for Returns and Communities from March 2013 until Kosovo held early elections last year.

In 2013, Jevtic's SLS became part of the Srpska List, a Belgrade-backed party formed with the goal of boosting turnout in the local elections in November that year.

"One of the main reasons for the return of the Serbian representatives to the Kosovo assembly and government is an agreement by which there will be no unilateral moves by the coalition partners, especially regarding the privatizations [of companies] in Serbian-majority communities," representatives of Srpska List, the main Kosovo Serb party, said.

They party said that "particular emphasis" would be placed in future on improving the economic situation in Serb-run communities.

After Aleksandar Vucic and Isa Mustafa, the Serbian and Kosovo Prime Ministers, met on Tuesday in Brussels for another round of EU-mediated talks, they agreed to halt fresh privatisations of companies in the Serb-run north of Kosovo.

Srpska List said it had also agreed with its coalition partners - the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK - that more attention would be paid to Serb returnees and to increasing their presence in institutions.

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