Assembly Committee approves draft law on Trepça, Srpska List against

(All monitored broadcasters, KTV)

Serb partner of Kosovo Government, Srpska List, continues not to accept the draft law on the future of Trepça mining complex.

Srpska List MP Sasa Milosavljevic has announced that they will continue opposing it the same way in other hearings if Serb requests will not be taken into consideration, KTV reported.

His reaction provoked debate within a part of the MPs present in the meeting of Assembly Committee on Economic Development. Head of this Committee, Muhamet Mustafa, reminded Milosavljevic of six invitations to meetings that were addressed to Serb representatives, but they never responded to them.

On the other hand, MP Sala Berisha-Shala reminded him of the UNMIK administration time, when Albanians and Serbs jointly issued a Resolution opposition a regulation of this administration which was sending Trepça toward bankruptcy.

According to Minister of Economic Development, Blerand Stavileci, Trepça will have an oversight board and a managing board, while the right to sale of its assets will be left open.

Vetëvendosje chairman Visar Ymeri, who replaced the other VV MP Glauk Konjufca, had a series of remarks about this draft law.

Assembly Committee on Economic Development voted in favour of the draft law on Trepça with majority vote.

Director of Trepça mining complex in the south, Ahmet Tmava, said that cooperation with management in the north is very good to the moment that politics does not get involved.

In Kosovo north, Serb workers of Trepça protested by blocking Mitrovicë/Mitrovica-Raska highway and they also staged a protest in Leposavic/Leposavic as a sign of their disagreement with the law on this enterprise.

GAP Institute also identified four violations of procedure and democratic principles of this legislation approval.

Most TV broadcasters also quoted Slavko Simic, Srpska List caucus leader, as saying that Serb MPs will vote against the draft law on Trepça.

In the meantime, Petrit Gashi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Privatization Agency of Kosovo (PAK), said that Serbia has neither shares nor properties in Kosovo and Belgrade is aware that Trepça is Kosovo’s property, TV21 reported.

Ahmeti to Janjic: Law must be respected

(RTK2)

Reacting to Kosovo media reports on ‘Christ the Saviour’ temple, using social networks the Visoki Decani Monastery abbot, archimandrite Sava Janjic, published scanned version of original documents which confirm ownership of Serbian Orthodox Church over the land and unfinished temple in Prishtinë/Pristina city centre.

Janjic told RTK2 that documentation exists and that he will persist on the aim to finish the temple, whilst Prishtinë/Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti once again repeated that this is impossible without a construction permit and that law must be respected.

“I have told Janjic not to make propaganda. It is easy for me to publish things on who did what through Facebook and Twitter, but I will not do that. I have said that law must be respected. I have told them, bring us all the documents on the permit you have, they never did, nor they want to communicate with us,” said Mayor Ahmeti. He urged Janjic not to call on UNMIK, but to rather address a letter to Municipality of Prishtinë/Pristina about this issue.

“UNMIK again! There are institutions here. They are in the Municipality of Prishtinë/Pristina. Why Sava Janjic never addressed a letter to the Municipality? He never asked for a meeting. If he recognizes UNMIK only, than let UNMIK give him a construction permit. But, it is not like that. There is a Municipality here, and there is law,” Shpend Ahmeti told RTK2.

Archimandrite Sava Janjic stated for RTK2 that Ahmeti should not think that the world got created with his coming into power. He reminded that Prishtinë/Pristina employees halted the cleaning action of the temple, whereas Ahmeti said this is not a religious, but a political issue.

Mustafa: Demarcation will be submitted if opposition does not want to dialogue

(RTK1)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, said that Law on Trepça is of the European level, therefore he expect its adoption next week, online version of RTK reported.

Mustafa said that if opposition does not accept dialogue, than the demarcation issue will be submitted to the Assembly. He made these statements during the inauguration of a pepper processing company in Podujevë/Podujevo, where 500 persons have been employed.

National Security Council strongly criticized

(KTV)

A lot of criticism has been addressed against the National Security Council, which operates in the framework of Kosovo Government.

Members of the Assembly Committee on Security consider this Council as failed because, according to them, it has not demonstrated any concrete action since its establishment. Furthermore, they say that this Council has only been established for its members to receive per diems and travel abroad.

Committee members from the opposition parties also addressed criticism against the Council.  Rexhep Selimi of Vetëvendosje Movement said that there is no communication at all between the Assembly Committee and the Council.

Security experts consider that this Council should have convened for many issues, including the arrests for terrorism to demarcation. Kohavision requested more details about the work of this Council and expenses it has made until now, but Government did not respond.

Only three per cent of Kosovars know what SAA is

(KTV)

Citizens are very little informed about the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and those citizens who are dissatisfied with the political and economic situation do not believe on implementation of SAA. Meanwhile, only three per cent of citizens have knowledge on SAA.

This was stated at a roundtable organised by Prishtina Institute of Political Studies (PIPS) and the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), where findings of the research report “Citizens’ general knowledge and perception on SAA,” were presented.

Leonora Kryeziu, PIPS executive director, said that this Agreement seeks from Kosovo to implement a series of reforms for which citizens in the country have little knowledge about.

“The research shows that people who are dissatisfied with the political and economic situation do not believe on implementation of this Agreement. Citizens are little informed about SAA and an awareness raising campaign regarding this is needed,” Kryeziu said.

Final decision on “New Kosova” power plant on Friday

(KTV)

The final decision regarding the construction of “New Kosova” power plant will be taken on Friday. The news was made public by Minister of Economic Development, Blerand Stavileci.

Stavileci said he will travel to the United States and he hopes to return from there with very positive news for this project.

Kohavision learned that in a video conference held earlier between the Kosovo side and the World Bank leaders, the latter had a willingness to support this project.

The power plant is expected to be financed by “Contour Global”, while it will be built by one of the companies which will be selected in an open competition. The amount of investment is estimated to be over 1 billion euro and production of this power plant will be around 500 megawatts.