Kosovo Assembly to deal with Trepça mining complex

Prishtina, 16 October 2007 – Kosovar daily Koha Ditore reports that the new draft resolution for Trepca mining complex will be passed on for approval to the Assembly of Kosovo next week. This has been announced by the representatives of the Assembly Committee for Economy, Trade, Energy, Transport and Telecommunication.

According to Bajrush Xhemajli, member of this committee, the previous draft resolution, which proposed the transformation of Trepca into a Publicly Owned Enterprise, has not been sent to the assembly for voting because of objections from the Kosovo Trust Agency, UNMIK Pillar IV, SRSG (head of UNMIK Mission), USAID and the US Office in Pristina. They had requested from the assembly committee to wait until the SRSG changes the Regulation 2005/48 so as to authorize him to privatise Trepca through an administrator.

The heads of the assembly committee for economy claim that the strategy of the Ministry for Energy and Mines (MEM) for Trepca does not exclude the possibility of privatizing natural and mineral resources of Kosovo, thus cannot serve as a basis for a final decision on Trepca’s status.

The Managing Director of Trepca South, Nazmi Mikullovci, was quoted as saying that the selection of a Trepca administrator has failed and it is crucial for Trepca to pay back its debts to the creditors, to avoid the risk of confiscation of its goods.

Based on the estimations of MEM, the value of mineral assets of Trepca reaches the amount of € 9.8 billion, while the exploitation of these goods would generate an annual income of € 500 million.

ECIKS