UNMIK Headlines 30 October
Serbia’s field trip to Kosovo on Friday (Tribuna)
Tribuna newspaper reports that Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, is expected to come to Kosovo on Friday to support local Serbs for participating in elections. Vucic insists on being accompanied by the minister without portfolio Aleksandar Vulin despite that fact that authorities in Kosovo have issued an arrest warrant for him.
However, this visit of Serbian delegation will not be an issue in today’s meeting in Brussels but according to the sources of the newspaper, this topic is being dealt with through diplomatic circles.
Sources of the newspaper also said that the visit and the composition of the Serbian delegation, especially Vulin’s inclusion in it, are being discussed with EU diplomats and Quint countries. This uncertainty made the visit be postponed for one day as it was originally announced for Thursday.
The visit was announced in a form of a field trip while it has been said that it will take place in many areas inhabited by Serbs.
Krasniqi: Thaçi rose to power by deceiving (Koha Ditore)
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi announced on Tuesday withdrawal from leading structures of PDK and also from membership in the party. In an interview for the paper, Krasniqi responded to accusations received one day ago from Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi. He talked about vote theft but not from the people as the head of the government claimed but from theft of Thaçi’s people.
“I think that the governance has degraded and the way how it addresses the public opinion to win votes, with fraud, is not dignifying for a prime minister or even a political leader,” said Krasniqi. Because of this approach, Krasniqi said he was not present in the PDK election campaign in the last elections. “Ungrounded promises are deceptions,” said Krasniqi.
Korte: Implementation of laws remains a shortcoming in Kosovo (Koha Ditore)
European Commission’s deputy director of the Enlargement Directorate-General Joost Korte said that implementation of laws remains a significant challenge on Kosovo’s journey to EU integrations. Korte said the issue should be addressed in order to meet EU-set criteria. “Laws are in place, they have been passed, but implementation and enforcement in practice remains a weakness”, he said after meeting representatives of civil society in Prizren.
EU: “Kosova A” to be closed before 2018 (Koha Ditore)
EU Office in Kosovo and the Vienna-based Energy Community Secretariat rebutted the Kosovo Ministry for Economic Development which said that the EU Council of Ministers had prolonged the lifespan of the “Kosova A” power plant.
Officials from the Energy Community said the decision of the Council of Ministers excludes power plants which have been previously agreed to close before 2018. At the same time, EU Office confirmed existence of an agreement with Kosovo to close down “Kosova A” by 31 December 2017.