Headlines - 23.06.2017

• Daka believes certification of elections will conclude this month (Express)
• Quint wants a government with stable majority (Zeri)
• Main Kosovo parties refuse to give speaker’s post to Serbian List (Zeri)
• Mogherini and Hahn write to Hoxhaj (Epoka)
• Trump with first decision on Balkans: extends “black list” (Bota)
• Northern municipalities still not integrated into Kosovo system (Koha Ditore) 

Kosovo Media Highlights

Daka believes certification of elections will conclude this month (Express)

Head of the Central Elections Commission (CEC), Valdete Daka said that recounting of 280 ballots will conclude today (Friday) while counting of conditional votes and those from diaspora, will start on Saturday. She told Gazeta Express that she expects certification of the results for 11 June elections to conclude within this month, if there are no complaints. 

Quint wants a government with stable majority (Zeri)

Representatives of Quint countries in Pristina have called on Kosovo political parties to form a government that would have a stable majority in the parliament. Such a government, they said, would have to address main problems such as economic development, fight against corruption, rule of law, European integration, and regional stability.

Main Kosovo parties refuse to give speaker’s post to Serbian List (Zeri)

Kosovo’s main political parties have rejected the demand of the Serbian List to be given the post of the Assembly speaker in the new government. Officials from PAN coalition said the speaker’s post is regulated by the Constitution which stipulates that it belongs to the party or coalition that received most votes in the election process. Vetevendosje at the same time said Kosovo should not have a government that is dependable on the Serbian List.

Mogherini and Hahn write to Hoxhaj (Epoka)

Head of the EU’s Foreign Policy, Frederica Mogherini and the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, wrote a letter to Kosovo’s outgoing Minister for Foreign Affairs, Enver Hoxhaj. In her letter, Mogherini guaranteed he support in Kosovo’s path toward the European Union. She noted that the future of Kosovo and the entire Western Balkans is in the EU. Commissioner Hahn on the other hand wrote that he will continue to be determined on the objective of joint future of Kosovo, Balkans and Europe. The correspondence preceded Hoxhaj’s visit to Brussels in May. 

Trump with first decision on Balkans: extends “black list” (Bota)

US President Donald Trump has made his first decision concerning the Western Balkans by extending for another year "the National Emergency with Respect to the Western Balkans" - first introduced 16 years ago by then president George W. Bush. Bota Sot reports that the names of Fatmir Limaj, Daut Haradinaj, Sami Lushtaku, Rrustem Mustafa, Rexhep Selimi, Azem Syla and Emrush Xhemajli will continue to be on the black list of the United States of America. 

Northern municipalities still not integrated into Kosovo system (Koha Ditore)

The paper reports on the front page that four years since the last local elections and the northern municipalities are not yet integrated into the Kosovo system. The four predominantly-Serb municipalities have continued to resist the government in Pristina by not adopting municipal symbols. Furthermore, says the paper, illegal municipalities funded by Serbia continue to also function in the north with their staff receiving two salaries: from Kosovo and Serbia. Local government experts say the problems in the northern municipalities’ integration are related to many ambiguities in the Brussels agreement of April 2013. Bekim Salihu from the Kosovo-based Institute for Advanced Studies (GAP) said the agreement speaks about local government only in one of its provisions and does not say what should happen after local elections take place. All this has provided suitable ground for Serbia which, on one hand, insists it is not breaching the Brussels agreement and on the other, it continues to keep its parallel structures active, Salihu said.