The EU Information and Cultural Centre in North Mitrovica organized yesterday a discussion on the status of rule of law in Kosovo, Kontakt plus radio reported. The panelists included representatives of UNMIK, EU Office in Kosovo, non-governmental organization Activ and EULEX. Ian Bancroft, the EULEX coordinator in northern Kosovo, said, among other things, that the north has a special context in Kosovo, and for this reason the mission has particular presence here and in some way a separate mandate. He pointed out that unfortunately the implementation of the Agreement of Justice between Belgrade and Priština is late a bit and highlighted that for many years the impunity was widespread and that the people have understood the rule of law through its absence. Milica Andrić from Aktiv pointed out that for years the rule of law was weak and stressed that the impunity did not exist only within the community, for the citizens, but for Kosovo institutions as well. “The biggest problem with these informal decisions of the Kosovo government, which are made without any kind of reaction, i.e. they go without the sanctions/punishment of the international community, and even of Serbia, which never reacts to them, these are decisions related to the ban on the import of books and textbooks in Serbian language since September 2015, then the decision not to issue the documents to members of minority communities and the decision from May this year to ban the use of the passport issued by the Republic of Serbia,” Andrić stressed. Andric believes solution for the issues related to documents are extremely simple and are either based on the implementation of laws, like the Law on Education in the municipalities, or on changing administrative instructions, adding that only a small pressure from the international community is needed, because the government is not open to do so.

Juan Carlos Galocha Morales from the UN said that UNMIK in Kosovo does not have this executive part, but their work focuses on monitoring and reporting and they are engaged in the coordination of the rule of law sector, in which the civil society engages with the international organizations and other actors, exchanges information, and implement the projects in practice, Kontakt plus radio reported.