The Minister of European Integration, Bekim Çollaku, met on Thursday with civil society representatives in Ferizaj/Urosevac, to discuss the progress that has been achieved in the field of Kosovo`s European integration. “We expect to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) during this year. This agreement will bring many benefits to Kosovo citizens and particularly to the trade business sectors; the SAA will open the paths of Kosovo`s market toward European Union countries," said Collaku.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Thursday launched a research report within the project "Public Pulse - Safety in public schools in the municipality of Pristina". This report deals with the perception of students, parents and teachers about safety issues in schools in Pristina and offers concrete recommendations for steps to be taken to increase the security. The outcome data will be used to design a comprehensive platform 2015-2018 against violence in schools.

Lumir Abdixhiku, the Executive Director of Pristina-based research institute RIINVEST, comments on recent statements by Kosovo’s Minister for Communities and Returns Aleksandar Jablanovic. “A minister of my Republic – Jablanovic – ignores all killings [during the Kosovo conflict] as if he had lived far away from here, but that isn’t so … How is it possible that the whole world knows about the massacres committed in Kosovo, but a minister of the Republic, who has spent his life surrounded by massacres, doesn’t? What makes a Serb minister of the Republic to deny human fatalities?

Koha Ditore runs an opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman that originally appeared in The New York Times.

France will not extradite to Serbia the former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Genc Zogaj, arrested pursuant to an international arrest warrant issued by Serbian authorities. Serbia has charged Zogaj for war crimes allegedly committed during the Kosovo conflict.

In the regular meeting of the government of Kosovo on Wednesday, it was decided that the mining complex Trepca should be returned from the Kosovo Privatization Agency (KPA) to  the government of Kosovo.

Minister of Diaspora Valon Murati has asked for accountability from the Kosovo government regarding recent remarks of the Minister for Communities and Returns, Aleksandar Jablanovic. Murati said Jablanovic’s statements are in violation of the Constitution of Kosovo and offensive to mothers of missing persons in Gjakova/Djakovica.

President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga said that illegal migration trends are deeply concerning and that this is a result of the lack of economic development. “Whatever the migration causes may be, one thing remains uncontested: This must not be the Kosovo of 2015, because all of us, its citizens, share a different vision for our state, and our place within this state”, said Jahjaga at the meeting of the National Council on European Integration.

Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has postponed the visit to Kosovo for 14 January, Vucic’s media office confirmed to Radio Free Europe. On Facebook, the Serbian Civic Initiative from Ranillug has called on interested people to welcome Vucic to Gracanica on 14 January, in the afternoon hours.

Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hashim Thaci, said in Tirana that there is nothing to worry about the visit of Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, to Kosovo. “The visit of the Serbian prime minister is being done through the permission of Kosovo authorities. It is not the first visit and it will not be the last. These visits are taking place after the visits of Kosovo ministers to Belgrade so they are almost normal, ordinary, visits between two countries”, said Thaci to the media after meeting his Albanian counterpart, Ditmir Bushati.