Kocijancic: Special court to be established, one way or another (Zeri)
The European Union Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Maja Kocijancic, said in an interview with Zeri that the EU expects Kosovo to vote as soon as possible the special court, otherwise, according to her, the Kosovo institutions’ reliability might be put into question. “This process is very important for the future of Kosovo, the functioning of the rule of law, but also in terms of possible message that impunity will not be tolerated and that each individual crime should be addressed,” Kocijancic said. She said that claims made in the Council of Europe report are under investigation by the Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), and there is a moral obligation to establish a legal modality to address those accusations. “There is a broad consensus that this will be the reality, one way or the other. However, it would be preferable that this be done in cooperation with the Kosovo justice system,” she said. Kocijancic also announced that this year the European Commission will deploy a new mission of experts in Kosovo, which will analyze Kosovo’s fulfillment of standards in the visa liberalization roadmap.
Government wants to strengthen position of special court’s accused (Koha)
The paper reports on its front page that the authorities in Kosovo want the special court, once established, to rely on new evidence and discard that presented by the Council of Europe’s rapporteur Dick Marty. In this regard, the Kosovo government has proposed supplementing the draft law on the establishment of the special court so that earlier written testimonies are superseded by witnesses’ verbal testimonies. According to legal analysts, this change would strengthen the position of those accused by the special court as written testimonies would not be subject to cross examination by the defence and they would therefore be able to be declared inadmissible.
Budget for northern municipalities unblocked (Kosova Sot)
The government of Kosovo in its regular meeting yesterday approved the 2015 budget for the municipalities of Mitrovica North, Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan after the respective municipal assemblies reapproved their budgets.
Kosovo to boycott OSCE conference in Budva (Zeri/Bota Sot)
The government of Kosovo has refused to participate in a regional conference on issues of local government in Budva, Montenegro, to be held on 5 and 6 May. This is because the Kosovo government is dissatisfied with the way that the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, as the organizer of the conference, has invited Kosovo to participate in it. Kallxo.com has secured a letter in which the General Secretary of the Ministry of Administration and Local Government, Besnik Osmani, has expressed the dissatisfaction about the way Kosovo was invited to this conference. “The Government of Kosovo refuses to participate in any conference where the representation of Kosovo is not in accordance with the arrangements for regional representation according to the Brussels Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia,” reads the letter.
