Saturday, June 09, 2007

Mayor rejects responsibility over possible blackout in Skopje

The City of Skopje rejects any responsibility for eventual disconnecting from the power supply system of the streets and public areas, Mayor Trifun Kostovski said today.

In the letter addressed to the Finance Minister Trajko Slavevski, the Mayor blamed the previous government of passing inadequate regulation pertaining to this area. But he also accused the electric power distributor EVN of demanding settlement of electricity bills, although the company evades paying fees to the city budget generated from communal taxes collected from the citizens for street lighting.

Few days ago, EVN threatened to shut down the city lighting and even the traffic lights, if the City's authorities fail to settle 2 million euros debt for the supplied electricity.

"The city authorities and EVN are unable to overcome the problem", Kostovski said in his letter, adding that some of Skopje's municipalities' refusal to relocate the funds EVN transfers to their accounts to the City Budget adds up to the problem.

Kostovski urged Slaveski to host a meeting among representatives of the City Council, EVN and Skopje's municipalities in order to reach an acceptable solution, noting however, that a new regulation on this issue was necessary.

EVN announced to cut the power on Tuesday, 12 June.

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