Albanian Foreign Minister, Ditmir Bushari, in his address to the 23rd OSCE Ministerial Council taking place in Hamburg spoke about regional cooperation and Kosovo. “We have made good progress in regional cooperation with Western Balkans countries. There are six countries in this format and we look forward to Kosovo having a seat at this table as a participating state,” said Bushati. He encouraged the upcoming Austrian chairmanship of the OSCE to “explore ways of ensuring that this organisation does not discuss about Kosovo, without Kosovo.”

Vetevendosje Movement has called for an urgent session of the Kosovo Assembly to discuss the recent result of the survey of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which ranked the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in Kosovo on the 68th place out of a total of 70 countries assessed. Vetevendosje MP Mytaher Haskuka said PISA results show Kosovo students lag behind those in other countries by four years.

The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Kosovo, Ruairi O’Connell, said during his speech at the opening of the Anti-corruption Week in Kosovo that corruption and nepotism in Kosovo should be fought. He said that no one should be employed based on family connections.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci is visiting Malta today where he met Malta’s President, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca. “Malta was among the first countries to recognize the independence of Kosovo. In the last eight years, Malta has been a strong supporter of Kosovo’s European future. At the meeting with President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, we agreed that relations between our two countries should be continue also in the areas of economy, education and culture,” Thaci wrote on his Facebook profile.

The project Business to Business which aims to initiate business cooperation between social enterprises created as a result of grant-scheme "Increasing the employment of vulnerable groups and businesses," was opened today in Pristina. Kosovo’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, said this project employed hundreds of people and trained over 500, including special needs category.  The European Union Office representative in Pristina, Libor Chlad, said the EU project aims to employment of members of vulnerable groups.

In a meeting with the head of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kosovo, Agim Gashi, President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, praised the organization for its role in determining the fate of missing persons. Thaci said he appreciated the ICRC’s commitment for each missing person equally, regardless of their ethnic background. He also pledged to continue supporting the work of the ICRC, especially in the issue of missing persons.

The opposition parties' MPs could not secure enough votes during the Assembly plenary session today to call for an extraordinary session to discuss the death of Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari in Prizren detention center. The ruling coalition partners said they were against holding of the extraordinary session on Dehari case prior to the publication of final results of the investigation. “I don’t think now is the time to vote, now is the time for justice.

Kosovo’s Internal Affairs Minister, Skender Hyseni, during an interview for KTV said he will not resign his post following the death of Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari in Prizren detention center. According to him, initially the relevant institutions should investigate the case and depending on the findings, those responsible should be held accountable regarding the case. “We must let the institutions carry out their work,” Hyseni said.

The President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci has met these days during his visit to Tirana with the Albanian  state leaders. Today, Thaçi took to Facebook to inform that he met with the President of the Albanian Parliament, Ilir Meta. “We should continue with exchange of inter-state experiences, in order to strengthen further parliamentary democracy in Albania and Kosovo. Albania has made decisive steps towards EU membership, while Kosovo after SAA expects visa liberalization and increased dynamics towards EU membership.

The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) through a press release today condemned the attack against the Turkish Consulate in Prizren, saying such an act is against Kosovo’s interests. “The AAK expresses its deep concern about the incident at the Turkish Consulate in Prizren. The friendly relations with Turkey, as well as with any other country with which we have diplomatic relations, are our goal, and should be treated as such,” notes the press release. Also, the Islamic Community of Kosovo (ICK) condemned the attack against Turkey's Consulate in Prizren.