Mustafa: Law on special court within a few days (dailies)
Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said on Tuesday that the draft law on the special court will be voted in a matter of days and that there is no reason for this issue to be delayed. Mustafa said they first need to secure the required number of votes to pass the law in the Assembly. As for the talks with Serbia, Mustafa said there are on-going discussions on the telephone code for Kosovo, energy and the barricade over the River Ibar. He added that talks would also focus on the initial framework agreement for the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.
PDK lacks consensus on special court (Koha)
The paper reports on its front page that the lack of consensus within the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) is delaying the parliamentary vote on the special court. Sources within the PDK told the paper that nine PDK MPs have yet to be convinced to vote in favour of the special court that will address war crimes allegations in Kosovo. “The number of PDK MPs that are against the special court has gone up after the verdicts in the Drenica Group case. Even though they admit this, they hesitate to say how they will vote in the case of the special court,” the source added. Meanwhile, Kosovo’s President, Atifete Jahjaga, said on Tuesday that the Government and the Assembly should be asked about delays in proceeding the draft law on the special court.
Schlumberger: Establishment of special court good for Kosovo (Epoka)
The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Jean Claude Schlumberger, said on Tuesday that Kosovo should not delay the establishment of the special court. “The OSCE is not directly involved in this process, but I think that it is important for Kosovo to establish the special court and to clarify war crimes allegations. There are some delays and they could be political but I don’t wish to analyse them. However, there is no doubt that the establishment of the special court would be good for Kosovo,” Schlumberger said.
Tahiri: Serbian officials should accept Kosovo reality (Epoka e Re)
In an interview for the paper, head of the Pristina delegation in talks with Belgrade Edita Tahiri said that Serbian officials’ claims that Kosovo can only get an international dialing code if Serbia applies for it are “unrealistic”. Tahiri said that Kosovo will most definitely get its code and Austria will be the country to apply on its behalf with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Tahiri dismissed reports that the Gazivoda Lake would be discussed in the upcoming meeting of Kosovo and Serbia prime ministers in Brussels. “This is only propaganda from the Serbian side,” stressed Tahiri.
Evaluation report prior to visa liberalization (Zeri)
The European Commission is expected to send an evaluation team in July to examine whether Kosovo has met the criteria for visa liberalization. This time, according to the paper, Pristina expects a positive assessment regardless of the number of refugees, and levels of corruption and rule of law. Kosovo’s Deputy Minister for European Integration, Ramadan Ilazi, said that 2015 will be a European year where people of Kosovo will be able to travel freely in the Schengen area. Meanwhile, opposition parties and civil society say that Kosovo is far from visa liberalization. They also argue that Kosovo will not be granted visa liberalization because of the vast number of refugees, corruption and the lack of rule of law in Kosovo.
Kosovo ranked fourth in the world for number of jihadists (dailies)
The French newspaper Le Monde in an article regarding the number of jihadists in the western countries has ranked Kosovo among the top places for the number of jihadist fighters. Le Monde writes that Kosovo is ranked in the fourth in the world with 125 fighters per 1 million inhabitants. Citing a United Nations report, the paper writes that the 10 countries with the biggest number of jihadists in proportion to their population are: Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Albania and Morocco.
