Statement on today’s news coverage

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the European Institute of Peace would like to refute the claims made by Večernje Novosti in today’s article referencing our work. Our two organizations have not received a request or mandate from EUSR Miroslav Lajčak, the German government or any other party to develop a statute for the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. Our discussions were internal, using publicly available information on topics of public interest, which is a prerogative of the civil society. We regret that our two organizations were not consulted in the making of the article. We kindly request that the news services that published the story include our clarification at the same level of prominence the original article has received.