Zulfaj challenges Serbian minister’s statement on the Serbian community in Kosovo

Jeton Zulfaj, Kosovo’s chief negotiator with the European Union, has responded to Serbia’s Minister for European Integration, Nemanja Starovic, following the latter’s statement that a community in Kosovo is the “most deprived ethnic group of rights in contemporary Europe.”

According to Zulfaj, the Serbian community in Kosovo has a wide range of rights defined in the Constitution. These include 10 reserved seats in the Assembly, a guaranteed ministerial post, reserved representation in judicial institutions, a public television channel, the right to a public university, as well as a veto on issues related to community rights.

He shifted attention to the treatment of Albanians in Serbia, accusing the country of violating their rights through the deactivation of registered addresses.

Zulfaj argued that this practice affects personal documents, access to healthcare services, education and the exercise of the right to vote.

In support of his position, the chief negotiator cited the Helsinki Committee in Serbia, which has described the deactivation of addresses as “ethnic cleansing through administrative means.” He also referred to the European Commission’s 2025 report on Serbia.

Zulfaj described the situation as “deprivation of rights” and claimed that Serbia uses Russian propaganda narratives.

“Our duty as Europeans is to dismantle Russian propaganda and its representatives wherever we find them,” he wrote on X.