Thaci: Pristina-Belgrade dialogue to continue early next year (Zeri)
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hashim Thaci, visited Strasbourg and met the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland. Thaci assured Jagland that the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade will continue early next year. He also said that, in the coming months, Kosovo will start to work on procedures for full membership in the Council of Europe. Thaci is expected to travel to Brussels on Thursday where he will meet the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and the EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn.
Dialogue in Brussels resumes with energy (Tribuna)
The Kosovo Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, has resumed talks with Belgrade under EU facilitation. On the first day, the parties discussed the issue of energy, specifically the licensing of an energy distribution company in the north. The parties concluded that the majority of companies in the north have already received licenses from relevant Kosovo institutions while the rest are in the process of obtaining them.
Government without KLA (Zeri)
Zeri, on its front page, writes that the new government of Kosovo does not include some of the main figures from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Except for the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Hashim Thaci, no other minister of the new government was a member of the KLA.
Asylum seekers to pay 7,500-euro fine (Zeri)
People from Kosovo, who are leaving illegally for EU countries, could be fined up to 7,500 euros. This was said on Wednesday in a joint press conference by Interior Affairs Minister Skender Hyseni, German Ambassador Angelika Viets, and Austrian Ambassador Johann Brieger. The foreign diplomats expressed their concern about the increasing number of asylum seekers from Kosovo in their two countries. They warned that these illegal migrations are damaging the visa liberalization process for Kosovo.
