UNMIK Headlines 13 June
Thaçi and Dacic to sign new implementation plan within a week (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore reports that Kosovo and Serbia are disregarding the listed deadlines for the implementation plan of the first agreement initialed in April by prime ministers Hashim Thaçi and Ivica Dacic and EU High Representative Catherine Ashton.
The prime ministers are now negotiating a new implementation plan, which is aimed to be signed within a week. Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister, Edita Tahiri, who is coordinating working groups on the implementation of the agreement, said to Koha Ditore that Thaçi and Dacic will be signing a detailed implementation plan by 20 June, at the latest. “We are at the stage of achieving of an agreement about the detailed implementation plan. The moment the three-party agreement, at the level of prime ministers, is achieved, the implementation stage will begin,” said Tahiri.
Implementation towards failure (Tribuna)
Kosovo and Serbia could not manage to find a common language on energy and telecommunication, and this is not expected to happen before 15 June, which will violate Brussels agreement, which required from the parties to agree on these issues by the middle of the month. The parties will make efforts to reach the agreement by the end of the week, be it on these issues or the six other fields included in the Brussels agreement.
Diplomatic sources told this daily that the principle of neutrality has made it impossible for the parties to agree, and as a consequence, results are not expected and both Kosovo and Serbia are risking receiving positive decisions from the European Council. Negative decisions of the Council are expected to bring further complications on the implementation and parties will decide on new agendas.
Voting with Serbia documents, anti-constitutional (Koha Ditore)
Head of the Central Elections Commission Valdete Daka has travelled for a visit to Brussels where she is expected to discuss the way Serbs in the north will vote in upcoming local elections. Discussion topics are said to include the voting lists, composition of municipal election commissions and registration of Serb political parties.
Daka however came under fire from the members of CEC who accused her of not consulting anyone before going to Brussels and above all, for agreeing to take part in the process of dialogue with Serbia.
At the same time, notes the paper, officials in Kosovo continue to come out with contradictory statements regarding the way members of the Serb community will vote. Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi has said Serbs will not be conditioned in voting only with Kosovo-issued documents while his deputy, Hajredin Kuçi, said recently that Serbs will be able to vote only with documents that prove they are citizens of Kosovo. Law on elections, on the other hand, specifies that every person with the right of vote will be able to do so on condition that their name is in the central civil registry or is registered as a citizen of Kosovo.
One more showdown between Thaçi and Dacic (Epoka e Re)
On Friday, the UN Security Council will hold regular session in which it will discuss the newest report of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the situation in Kosovo. In this session, there will be another confrontation between Kosovo Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi, and his counterpart from Serbia, Ivica Dacic.
Ban in his report has hailed achievement of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia and has evaluated it as historic. UN SG in his report has called on both parties to open channels of communication and to make efforts to implement the agreement. “I hail the first agreement for normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which has been achieved in the framework of the dialogue, with the facilitation of European Union. This is a historic success,” said Ban Ki-moon.
Cliff: Serbs to vote in November elections (Zëri)
British Ambassador to Kosovo Ian Cliff said that the Brussels agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is not the ideal solution but that for the residents in the north it is important to have successful local elections set to take place in November. Cliff said the agreement provides protection for Serbs through the association of Serb municipalities.
Zbogar: Kosovo is moving slowly (Tribuna)
The Special Representative of the European Union in Kosovo, Samuel Zbogar, reported on Wednesday at the Commission for Foreign Policies of the Slovenian Parliament on the recent developments in the Republic of Kosovo. He mentioned the progress that has been made but also said that Kosovo is still a sort of frozen conflict.
“There are major frustrations among both sides and you can never know what would induce a major conflict,” said Zbogar, according to Slovenian agency STA. He added that EU integration process is the key instrument to get Pristina and Belgrade closer. “This is in the hands of the European Union, which is every day more present in Kosovo.” He said that Kosovo has reached significant progress on the internal developments, even though they are very much contradictory, since Brussels would want Kosovo to move with a faster pace.
Vetëvendosje changed political concept (Zëri)
Leader of Vetëvendosje Albin Kurti on the eighth anniversary of the movement’s establishment said that perception of politics has changed as it has shown it is possible to be both an MP and an activist as well as a politician and honest. He said Vetëvendosje is the most principled and clear political entity but at the same time it is also the most misunderstood and misinterpreted.
“We need transformation of the state of Kosovo from a consumer state to a production state; from a corrupt state to a state where rule of law brings justice for citizens and guarantees rights of citizens; from a state that talks to Belgrade about territories and internal arrangement of Kosovo to a state that unites Mitrovica and talks to Tirana about national unification”, said Kurti on the occasion.