Prishtina, 27.10.2023 – Over the past few days, the Ministry of Economy has maintained regular contact with the Temporary Board of Directors (TBoD) of POE Trepça sh.a., who have consistently reported on developments within Trepça.

We are concerned that despite the Board’s ongoing requests, no information has been reported regarding the organizers of the strike, the exact number of strikers, and the health status of each, the entry and exit times of the strikers, and other individuals in the mine.

The Board informed us that the initial demands of the strikers, starting on 24 October 2023, were as follows:

1. The payment of salaries to be made from the 1^st to the 10^th of the following month.
2. The dismissal of the current Acting Chief Executive Officer and the non-appointment of any new consumed chief executive officer.
3. Future management to provide health insurance.
4. Future management to provide better working tools and conditions.

Regarding salaries for the month of September, the Government allocated 1.64 million euros to Trepça one day before the strike began, on 23 October 2023 and the enterprise executed the remaining portion of salaries on 25 October (one day after the strike began). After the payment of the salaries and explanations provided by the Board on their other demands, the Board was informed on 25 October that the only active complaint remaining was the dismissal of the Acting Chief Executive Officer. In this regard, the Board informed the employees that the evaluation and appointment of the Chief Executive Officer is an exclusive competence of the Board and assured them that the performance evaluation of all senior officials of the enterprise is being conducted in accordance with the law. They also expressed a clear stance that all decisions regarding the enterprise will be made based solely on arguments and facts, in line with the applicable rules and laws.

The Government of the Republic of Kosovo is committed to assisting Trepça and all publicly owned enterprises in their development and to the benefit of the economy of the country, improving services for citizens and working conditions for employees. Over the past four years, the Government of Kosovo has provided strong support to Trepça through subsidies worth over 28 million euros for capital investments and operating expenses for salaries and electricity. On the other hand, we expect legality, cooperation, and full commitment from publicly owned enterprises: their boards, managements, and employees, because only in this way can we achieve our common goals.

In April of this year, the Government approved in principle an investment loan of 20 million euros for Trepça. We hope that the terms for disbursing the loan will be met soon, and we are cooperating with the enterprise and other parties in this regard. In this direction, from the enterprise, we expect further strengthening of internal financial and operational controls.

We are confident that with the Government’s assistance and the enterprise’s full commitment, Trepça has a bright future, as it deserves, as do the miners, Mitrovica, and the entire country. The newly appointed Board has the Government’s complete trust and support to effectively oversee the enterprise, make the necessary decisions, and resolve operational and financial challenges.

We urge the miners and other Trepça employees to cooperate and return to work as soon as possible because only in this way can we achieve success and fulfill our common goals for a stronger Trepça, for its employees, itself, and our state.