• President Osmani on education strike: We must find acceptable solution (media)
• Kosovo teachers strike on first day of new school year (BIRN)
• Hovenier welcomes smooth start of implementation on free movement (media)
• Rama in Belgrade: Open Balkan is a project of peace (Kosovapress)
• Kosovo opens free trade negotiations with EFTA countries (RTK)
• AAK reacts to LDK leader Abdixhiku’s remarks (Telegrafi)
• Energy production is doubled, power cuts are stopped (Koha)
• Kosovo and Albania hail launch of unified children’s primer (BIRN)

President Osmani on education strike: We must find acceptable solution (media)

President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani said on Thursday that parties must reflect and stop the strike in the educational system. In a Facebook post, she argued that the position of the educational staff must be improved but that the strike must end first. She called on stakeholders to resort to dialogue and to reflect on resuming the educational process.

“Today, we need reflect and responsible behavior, not only vis-à-vis the educational process but also in terms of the major challenges that our country is faced with. The union of the pre-university education sector is entitled to address concerns about the well-being of the teachers and their wages, but always by avoiding irreparable damages caused to the interests of the students suffers when the educational process is stopped,” she said.

Osmani said that with the Law on Wages the position of teachers too has been improved. “All parties should address their proposals on the improvement of this draft law, which will very soon be open for public discussion … So instead of the strike, which damages the students, we must give an opportunity to dialogue which is in the benefit of the students, teachers, institutions and other organisations,” she added.

Osmani also said that as President she wants the position of teachers to be improved and to have greater equality in the education sector. “But I stand with the students. The right belongs only to them! We need to offer and protect their right to education! And the strike must be replaced with dialogue!”

Kosovo teachers strike on first day of new school year (BIRN)

Kosovo pupils found their classrooms empty of teachers on the first day of new school year, after the teachers’ union acted on warnings to strike to force the government to increase their salaries.

The school strike adds to another strike which started last week by administrative workers in many central and local institutions.

Minister of Finance Hekuran Murati told media on Wednesday that public workers, including teachers, who are striking, will not be compensated from the budget for the time they are not at work.

While visiting a striking kindergarden in Pristina on Thursday, the head of the teachers’ union, Rrahman Jasharaj, said they had filed a lawsuit against Murati and insisted that the strike will continue.

While the government has drafted a law on public workers which, according to experts, envisages an increase of 75 to 135 euros in teachers’ salaries, the union wants an extra 100 euros a month in salaries until the law is approved and enters into force.

“We have exhausted all possibilities for a dialogue with the government. We have sent also a mediator … Let’s wish and pray that [Albin] Kurti’s government will start a dialogue without threats,” Jasharaj said. “We will not step back. The strike will end when you say so, when the government resolves our requests,” he added.

Speaking about the strike, Prime Minister Kurti told media on Thursday that new law will address teachers’ concerns about salaries. “I hope the education process will continue. It’s not easy to compensate lost days,” Kurti said.

“The law on salaries will be subjected to public discussion next week. The coefficient for teachers is better than ever it was in the past,” he added.

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Hovenier welcomes smooth start of implementation on free movement (media)

United States Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, said on Thursday that he “welcomes the smooth start to implementation of the EU-facilitated agreement on entry/exit documents". "Freedom of movement is essential to normalization of relations centered on mutual recognition for Kosovo and Serbia. Looking forward to seeing progress on other issues in the coming months,” Hovenier said.

Rama in Belgrade: Open Balkan is a project of peace (Kosovapress)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said during his stay in Belgrade on Thursday that the Open Balkan initiative is a project of peace. At the opening of a wine festival, he said that the region should no longer suffer from the shadows of the past and that it should become a place of the future.

“The fact that we are all here together should encourage us even more and should make us even more confident that the Open Balkan is about much more than economy, much more than trade and is definitely much more than politics. The Open Balkan is a project of peace and a project of coexisting in peace, it is a project of the unification in peace of a shared vision for the future, so that this small neighborhood in the heart of Europe no longer suffers from the shadows of the past but to increasingly become a place of the future for all our youth,” Rama said.

Rama also said that as a result of the Open Balkan initiative there is greater trade volume between Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia.

Kosovo opens free trade negotiations with EFTA countries (RTK)

The news website notes that the Republic of Kosovo and countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) met in Geneva for the first round of negotiations toward a free trade agreement. The parties discussed the trade of goods, rules of origin, facilitating trade, sanitary measures, technical barriers in trade, competition, legal trade tools, legal issues and the resolution of disputes, ad trade and sustainable development. Investments, services and government procurements were addressed at the level of heads of delegations and there was an agreement to continue these discussions at the second round of talks which will be held in Kosovo.

“The main objective of the agreement is to further increase the presence of Kosovo products in EFTA markets, creating a competitive environment, eliminating trade barriers with special emphasis on increasing exports and investments. Discussions were constructive and they paved the way to concluding a mutually benefiting free trade agreement,” a statement issued by Kosovo’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.

AAK reacts to LDK leader Abdixhiku’s remarks (Telegrafi)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Lumir Abdixhiku, in an interview with T7 on Thursday responded to critics within his party, arguing that during their time the party had suffered its biggest downfall. “They brought the LDK at the level of the AAK [Alliance for the Future of Kosovo]. They cannot lecture me. They cannot tell me or my colleagues how a party is governed,” Abdixhiku said.

A spokesperson for the Haradinaj-led AAK reacted to Abdixhiku’s remarks saying that he is a paratrooper in the LDK and that he should resolve clashes within his party “in his own backyard”. “He should not mess with the Alliance. If his seat is shaking because of internal elections, or if he does not have what it takes to make an opposition against [Prime Minister] Albin Kurti, this is not our fault,” the spokesperson said.

Energy production is doubled, power cuts are stopped (Koha)

The daily reports in one of its leading stories that two blocs of the Kosovo Power Corporation (KEK) which were out of function for days have returned to production on Thursday giving an end to the power cuts. The power corporation said in a statement that as long as the four production units remain operational there will be no need for power cuts.

Kosovo and Albania hail launch of unified children’s primer (BIRN)

The Minister of Education in Kosovo, Arbërie Nagavci, and Albania’s Evis Kushi, on September 1 in Gjakova inaugurated the common Children’s Primer that will be used by first-grade pupils in both countries.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was present at the inauguration of the Primer in Gjakove/Djakovica, and said that from now on, all Albanian-speaking schoolchildren will learn with the same Primer.

“From today, children all over the lands inhabited by Albanians will learn the 36 letters of the Albanian alphabet with the same Primer,” wrote Kurti on Facebook.

The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, also congratulated the unified primer, which he said was the will of the two governments.

“Happy first unified Children’s primer, created by the union of the will of the governments of Albania and Kosovo, for all Albanian children wherever they are,” Rama wrote on Facebook.

In Kosovo, Minister of Education Nagavci announced that the Children’s Primer has been distributed in all municipalities.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3Rdnd0a