Kosovo Assembly debates establishment of special court (dailies)

A heated debate took place yesterday at the Kosovo Assembly session regarding the establishment of a special court expected to address allegations of war crimes committed by members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Glauk Konjufca from Vetevendosje, which sponsored yesterday’s motion, said that the special court would undermine the autonomy of Kosovo’s justice system and is a setback in the Kosovo’s state-building process. Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said the correspondence between President Atifete Jahjaga and the EU for establishment of the court has already been ratified by the Assembly last year and added that the Government believes the special court will not infringe the constitutional independence of the judiciary.

Kosovo Government to accommodate members of Civil Protection (Koha)

On the front page, the paper reports that the Kosovo Government plans to create jobs for 483 members of the Civil Protection, an illegal armed formation funded by Serbia and operating in the north of Kosovo. According to the recent agreement for the dissolving of the formation, its members will be employed in Kosovo institutions. Kosovo minister without portfolio and chief negotiator, Edita Tahiri, said the Serbian side presented a list of 751 persons that it insisted should be integrated into the Kosovo institutions. However, the figure went down to 483 as, according to Tahiri, the rest of the people in the list were either within the retiring age or were not Kosovo nationals. She said the Civil Protection members will be recruited based on the Kosovo applicable laws on civil service.

Serbian List yet to decide whether to join Kosovo institutions (Zeri)

Serbian List leader Aleksandar Jablanovic said in a debate at the Media Centre in Cagllavica that they will announce their decision on whether to rejoin the work of Kosovo institutions in the coming days. Speaking about the Brussels Agreement, Jablanovic said that not enough has been done to integrate people living in the north of Kosovo.

EU has not changed position on Kosovo status (Zeri)

European Commission spokesperson Catherine Ray said the EU has not changed position on Kosovo’s status and added that the decision on recognizing independent of Kosovo is an exclusive right of EU member states. Ray responded to questions following the statement of the EU chief of diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, that the dialogue in Brussels is taking place between two independent countries.