Headlines - 12.06.2013 Relief of debts in the north part of agenda (Koha Ditore) From the end of the war onwards, Serbs in the north have not paid their energy and water bills. Authorities don’t know the exact amount of family debts but they do have an estimation about the total amount which is at 130 million euro. One source told the newspaper that these debts will be paid but Kosovo will not be charged with the entire amount of debt. Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri has confirmed that the topic of debt is in the agenda of talks. “It is on the table, it has not been addressed yet, but it is in the agenda,” confirmed Tahiri, without giving any details. The parties are aiming now to find stakeholders to contribute to this settlement. “Kosovo cannot take over all shares, because in the north the total debt for electricity is more than 115 million euro and over 12 other millions for water. Serbia will be participating, but other potential donors are being explored,” said the source of the newspaper. Serbs in the north will be “amnestied” from the obligations to pay their debts for electricity and water, said the source of newspaper involved in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. No progress on telecom and energy (Zëri) Representatives of Kosovo and Serbia continued on Tuesday discussions on outstanding issues like telecom and energy but failed to make any progress and continue to hold diametrically opposing stances, the paper reports. Head of the Kosovo delegation and Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri confirmed the lack of progress in the dialogue taking place in Brussels. “They insisted on the same solution for the telecom but we rejected it. We will not allow a licensing of a third mobile operator in Kosovo without undergoing Kosovo’s legal procedures”, said Tahiri. Kosovo risks not getting SAA (Tribuna) Kosovo risks remaining without contractual relations with the European Union even after the summit of heads of member states. The government of the most isolated country in Europe expects that the EU summit on June 28^th will vote in favor of the European Commission’s recommendation to start negotiations with Kosovo that would lead to the Stabilization/Association Agreement. In addition to the SAA for Kosovo, the Commission has also recommended to member states to give Serbia the date for the start of membership talks. The decision of 27 heads of state has been conditioned with the implementation of the Brussels agreement. The agreement however is not being implemented as a result of Serbia’s rejection, but diplomatic sources told the paper that in such circumstances the European Council will hardly make a positive decision on Kosovo alone. The same source said that some EU member states would vote in favor of recommendations only in a regional context, and would not vote in favor of the recommendation for Kosovo, if Serbia does not get the date for membership talks. MPs “block” agreement’s ratification (Zëri) MPs part of the Assembly commission on legislation did not agree to take the draft law for ratification of Kosovo-Serbia agreement to vote and called on Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi to provide more details of the deal before they decide to send the draft to the plenary session. “In the absence of information from the Government I have no other choice but to ask for postponement of these deliberations for Monday”, said MP from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, Halit Krasniqi.  Osmani: Constitutional Court can annul implementation of agreement (Tribuna) Vjosa Osmani, member of parliament from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said the draft law for the ratification of the Kosovo-Serbia agreement can be sent to the Constitutional Court if eight MPs request this. “If the Constitutional Court were to rule that the agreement as such is not in line with the Constitution, then it can have legal consequences … This would mean that institutions would not have the right to implement the agreement in practice. What would happen with dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is a different matter, because it would depend on the will of the parties in dialogue,” Osmani said. The paper notes that the Vetëvendosje Movement has warned that if parliament adopts the draft law it would send it to the Constitutional Court.  Constitution is changing (Epoka e Re) Epoka e Re quotes director of the Kosovo-based think tank KIPRED, Ilir Deda, as saying that in order for the plan of the Brussels agreement to me implemented, at least 30 to 50 laws need to be changed. “By 20 June Kosovo needs to change 30 up to 50 laws. It should ratify the plan as an international agreement thereby also changing the Constitution,” said Deda. He evaluated that it would have been much better to have a basic agreement which would define the relations between Kosovo and Serbia instead of the present agreement. Yemen recognizes Kosovo, official confirmation to follow soon (dailies) Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj took to his social network profile to announce that Yemen has recognized the state of Kosovo and that the official confirmation, the note verbale, will be soon sent to relevant authorities. “I just had a telephone conversation with Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Abu-Bakr Al-Qirbi, who confirmed that his government has taken the decision to recognize independence of the Republic of Kosovo”, wrote Hoxhaj. Recognition from Yemen was also confirmed by Kosovo’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Rexhep Boja. Commissioner of prisons, “victim” of AKI (Koha Ditore) Commissioner of the Kosovo Correction Service, Resmi Hoxha, handed over his resignation from the post citing personal reasons but sources told the paper that the real reason behind the move is that he failed to successfully pass a verification procedure carried out by the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI). AKI had concluded a month ago that Hoxha presents “unacceptable threat for security”.