Serbia Denies Budget Discrimination Against Albanian Minority

Serbian ministry says slight cut in the 2024 budget for the National Council of Albanians – denounced by the council as discriminatory – was done based on a new regulation on money allocations for minorities.

Presevo, Serbia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Julian Nitzsche

The Serbian Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue has denied that the decrease of the 2024 budget for the National Council of the Albanian minority, saying the change was done based on a government regulation on money allocation for such councils.

“In 2023, the government passed a new Regulation on the criteria for the allocation of funds from the budget …for financing the work of national councils, [which…] prescribed that funds for the work of national councils for the year 2023 are paid in the amounts that were determined at the level of the monthly quotas for the year 2022,” it told BIRN.

It told BIRN that the Albanian council received around 13.2 million dinars [some 112,000 euros] in 2022, about 15.5 million dinars [some 132,000 euros] in 2023 while for 2024 it received 14,136,917 dinars [some 120,000 euros], which is 1,337,525 dinars [some 11.5,000 euros] less than in 2023.

The ministry said that, “based on the collected data on the number of institutions, foundations and companies whose founder or co-founder is the national council, and data according to the results of the last population census, and the application of the prescribed criteria,” there are bound to be differences in the amount of money allocated in compared with previous years.

The ministry told BIRN also that, based on the new regulation, other minorities also received less money this year, including Slovaks, Bosniaks and the Community of Jewish Municipalities.

But Nevzad Lutfiu, head of National Council of Albanians in Serbia, told BIRN on Wednesday that the ministry should have increased its budget, considering recent census data. “The budget for our institutions should have been increased due to the population census of 2022, but they not only did not consider this but on the contrary they decreased the budget,” Lutfiu said.

“This makes the functioning of the National Council of Albanians extraordinarily difficult,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, describing the decision as a “threat” which would not halt its work. “We will work even harder for our rights, despite discrimination and scandalous decisions such as this one,” he added.

Kosovo Deputy PM, Besnik Bislimi on X (Twitter) denounced the decision as another “ethnic cleansing through administration means” of ethnic Albanians.

“Probably the EU still does not see this as a unilateral act of Serbia,” Bislimi wrote ironically, adding “hence, no need for adjustment, and no concern about the implications for the Albanian population. Kosova denounces Serbia’s injustice towards Albanians in the Presheva Valley. We stand strong and determined to fight for equality and fair treatment.”

According to the rules in Serbia, 30 per cent of the total money for the councils is distributed in equal amounts to all registered national councils and the rest of the funds in proportion to the number of members of a certain minority represented by the national council.

This is determined according to the results of the last census, as well as the total number of institutions, foundations and companies the national council manages.

The ministry further splits the remaining 70 per cent in two ways: half in proportion to the percentage representation of members of the national minority that the council represents in relation to the total number of members of national minorities that have a registered national council and the other half is split to four parts – for culture, education, information and official use of language – in accordance with the ministry’s points system.