• Mustafa: Kosovo, not Serbia and Bosnia- Herzegovina is paying 100 percent tariff (KTV)
• Hoti: Potential agreement with Serbia doesn’t need referendum (KTV)
• Kosovo-Serbia agreement might abrogate Resolution 1244 (KTV)
• Elections in EP might shake Kosovo’s position with regard to visa liberalisation (KTV)
• Simic: Kosovo Serbs stand ready to protect state institutions (RTK)
• It remains unclear who pays electricity bills for north citizens (KTV)
• Ombudsperson asked to send Law on Salaries to Constitutional Court (KTV)

Mustafa: Kosovo, not Serbia and Bosnia- Herzegovina is paying 100 percent tariff

(KTV)

The LDK leader, former Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, believes that the tariff of the current Government is not being paid by Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is being paid 100 percent by Kosovo.

“While the Customs Management states that the import from those countries has declined down to 99 percent, shops are full of Serbian and Bosnia and Herzegovina goods. This is what citizens say! Meanwhile, we are more and more paying the tax/tariff of fiscal evasion, corruption, nepotism, and partisan employment; we are paying for lobbying of different persons, capture of public companies and independent agencies; we are paying the tax of abstention of prosecution and judiciary to the violations and abuse; we are paying the tax of Constitutional violations as a consequence of bargaining of the Government Coalition because of its missing votes,” Mustafa said.

According to him, for more than a year, the dialogue for a final agreement with Serbia has made the institutions and public in Kosovo not to deal with economic development, employment, education, and healthcare issues.

“I wonder if the dialogue means food for our population. I wonder if the dialogue with Serbia means education and healthcare?! The dialogue has turned into a competition to show muscles to each other within the fragile Government Coalition, as well as into a tool to keep power. It has become like an arena of gladiators, where the rulers used to shift attention of citizens from their problems,” Mustafa emphasised.

Mustafa said that if anyone of the Government Coalition loves this country, and he has no doubts that there are such persons, they should admit that they have deceived the people and themselves with the PDK slogans for great decisions, and that their only right decision is to resign.

“They should resign, and we should go to the polls. In addition, the internationals will take a right decision if they do not put pressure about the dialogue, because, except fostering populism, nothing good is achieved under such a pressure,” Mustafa concluded.

Hoti: Potential agreement with Serbia doesn’t need referendum

(KTV)

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) caucus leader expressed his conviction that the agreement with Serbia will include the normalisation of Kosovo’s relations with this state, and nothing more.

“Therefore, it must be achieved in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution and relevant laws. Such an agreement does not need to go to a referendum, as the Head of PAN announces, unless he is planning a border correction with this agreement. Let him be honest with citizens and then he will see the citizens’ response himself,” said Hoti.

Kosovo-Serbia agreement might abrogate Resolution 1244

(KTV)

Legal experts think that achievement of a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, which would resolve the dispute between the two countries, will have to be formalised through adoption at the UN Security Council.

Arsim Bajrami, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Prishtina, told Radio Free Europe that a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbia would be sponsored by the European Union, as the Dialogue facilitator.

However, according to him, given that the UN is involved in the Kosovo issue through the Resolution 1244, through which it mandated the international administration of Kosovo; it would be of interest that a possible agreement with Serbia be recognised by the Security Council.

“This agreement should also formally and completely abrogate the Resolution 12 44, and it should be replaced with another resolution, which will open the path to membership in UN. In some way, this resolution would end the international administration established by the Resolution 1244, and it would provide some type of recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the Security Council Member States,” Bajrami said.

Afrim Hoti, professor of International Law at the University of Prishtina, has a similar opinion. However, talking to Radio Free Europe, he said that the content of a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbia does not need to be discussed at the UN Security Council.

 Elections in EP might shake Kosovo’s position with regard to visa liberalisation

(KTV)

After a long silence, institutional officials have again started to talk about visa liberalisation.

Following the failure to get the green light for visa liberalisation in the EU Council of Ministers last year, there is now hope that this can be done in June this year.

At least, this is the expectation of the Minister of Integration Dhurata Hoxha, but not also of Members of Kosovo Assembly.

They say that Kosovo should make a continuous fight against corruption, as a criterion that is measured on quarterly basis by those who oversee Kosovo’s progress towards this process.

Furthermore, opposition MPs say that Kosovo’s position will also depend heavily on the outcome of the European Parliament elections, where the possibility of increase of extreme right-wing parties remains a concern.

While it has been long rumoured that imposition of the tariff on Serbian goods and the clash that the Prime Minister has with many powerful countries will affect the liberalisation process, MPs say that it was not fair for this to be done, since it is not related with this process at all.

Simic: Kosovo Serbs stand ready to protect state institutions

(RTK)

While demonstrations of the opposition were taking place on Sunday in Belgrade, in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north a group of Serbs gathered spontaneously and expressed their readiness to go to Serbia, with the intention, as the deputy chairman of Srpska Lista Igor Simic said, to protect the state institutions of Serbia.

“Today and yesterday, we could see that in Belgrade they are trying to destroy Serbia’s institutions and occupy the legitimate and legal authority to take power from people for the interests of their pockets,” Simic said.

“We stand ready to protect Serbia from those who perceive it as a place where they can get the money they need without causing any concern to ordinary people,” he added.

He called on Serbs not to fall prey of e provocations of Djilas, Jeremic, Obradovic, and stressed that it is necessary not to give the enemies the opportunity to rejoice over what is happening in Belgrade.

It remains unclear who pays electricity bills for north citizens

(KTV)

A judgment issued by the Prishtinë/Pristina Basic Court one year ago, which prohibits the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) to include  energy losses in north Mitrovica/Mitrovicë in citizens’ bills, has made it unclear on who has been covering those expenses for 15 months.

Kosovo Assembly Members and Office of Ombudsperson are confident that citizens are no longer paying. AAK MP Teuta Haxhiu, who is a member of the Assembly Committee for Human Rights, stated that reportedly, it is the EU Office in Kosovo that has covered electricity bills for north Serbs.

Suzana Gashi, Director of Department for Legal Affairs at the Office of Ombudsperson, said they have received unconfirmed reports that the expenses have been covered by the European Energy Network. Gashi says it was not the Kosovo Government that stopped billing citizens for energy losses in north, but it happened as a result of the decision of the Prishtinë/Pristina Basic Court, which ruled in favour of the Ombudsperson, and which should be respected.

However, the EU Office in Kosovo refuted statements of the AAK MP and Ombudsperson’s Office.

Press officers responded by email that the Assistance Instrument could not be used for funding expenses of an enterprise.

According to them, the EU assistance is designed to help beneficiaries to get prepared for the EU integration, based on the Midterm Sectorial Strategy. Moreover, they called on Kosovo and Serbia to implement the Agreement on Energy and other agreements without further due.

The Energy Regulatory Office also is not aware that energy losses in north Mitrovica/Mitrovicë are covered by the EU.

ERO spokesperson Adelina Murtezaj-Bajrami stated by email to KosovaPress that since 2017, the costs of losses in north have not been billed to citizens, and therefore it has been decided not to include those losses as part of revenues.

But Vetëvendosje MP Saranda Bogujevci, also a member of the Assembly Committee for Human Rights, says that the Committee has not been officially informed on who is covering the losses in north Mitrovica/Mitrovicë.

The Council for Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) has addressed serious allegations against ERO, saying that ERO is criminally responsible for the whole abuse that happened with the budget of citizens.

The CDHRF Director Behxhet Shala says that not only citizens should not be charged for the losses in north, but they should be reimbursed for the 15 years that they covered those losses not being aware of that.

He said that CDHRF is not aware of who has been covering those losses over the last year.

Until December 2017, other citizens were charged with unpaid electricity bills of Serb citizens of north Mitrovica/Mitrovicë. Those bills were estimated up to 8 million euro a year.

Ombudsperson asked to send Law on Salaries to Constitutional Court

(KTV)

Dozens of requests to send the Law on Salaries to the Constitutional Court have reached the Ombudsperson’s address.

The latter says that if he identifies violations or any incongruities with the Constitution, he will send the law to the Constitutional Court.

In the meantime, lower primary school teachers continue to oppose this law, and expect this institution and other institutions to review their complaints as soon as possible.

Feeling discriminated with the coefficient in the new law on salaries, a few weeks ago these teachers also sent a petition with signatures from several Kosovo institutions.

If no steps are taken to change this law, teachers of grades 1 through 5 warn that they will radicalise the measures.

The Law on Salaries was opposed by many sectors in the country that also entered strikes for several weeks in a row.