Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Hajredin Kuçi yesterday met with a United Nations delegation, headed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet. The main topics of discussion were developments in Kosovo in the area of rule of law, the dialogue process with Serbia, the EU integration process, and membership in regional and international organizations, including the United Nations. Assistant Secretary-General Mulet said he was impressed by positive developments in Kosovo in recent years.

The municipality of Leposaviq/Leposavic will boycott Kosovo’s 8 June parliamentary elections. This municipality’s leaders said that the necessary conditions for elections are not in place. Also, political parties and candidates will not be allowed to campaign in the territory of the Leposaviq/Leposavic municipality.

On the front page, the paper reports on a study presented by the Group for Judicial and Political Studies, which claimed that the funding of political parties remains closed and nontransparent. Fisnik Korenica from the Group said that the funding in Kosovo does not fulfill international standards, noting that there are no sufficient mechanisms to verify whether donors have been reported or not. “The study shows that every party in Kosovo lacks internal financial control.

The British Minister for Europe, David Lidington, said that the stance of London is that Kosovo Serbs should vote on 8 June in order for the elections to have international legitimacy. Meanwhile, the British Ambassador in Kosovo, Ian Cliff, informed Serb politicians in the north that symbols of the “Republic of Kosovo” will not be removed from ballots and that an election boycott would hurt Kosovo Serbs.

The coordinator of the Kosovo government for visa liberalization, Besnik Vasolli, believes that the arrival of Eurosceptics in the European Parliament will not cause problems regarding visa liberalization. According to him, Kosovo has fulfilled all criteria from the guide for visa liberalization. “We don’t believe that the recent elections in the European Parliament will endanger visa liberalization, since it largely remains a technical process,” said Vasolli.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj and Lt. Gen. (ret) Keith W. Dayton, Director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, signed on Thursday a cooperation agreement between the Center and the Kosovo Diplomatic Academy. Hoxhaj said the signing of the agreement was very important as it will provide assistance in the area of human capacity building and strengthen Kosovo’s diplomacy.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) certified on Wednesday the final list of voters for the 8 June general elections. The list contains 1,782,454 names of voters, divided into 38 municipalities. Based on civil registration records, 33,735 voters will have the right to vote for the first time. During the CEC meeting, the accreditation of 430 electoral observers was also certified.

The official campaign for the 8 June elections started in Kosovo, after the “pre-election campaign”. The Kosovo Assembly has 120 seats, but 20 are reserved for minority communities, including ten for Serbs and the rest for other non-Serb communities. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has certified 30 participating entities, including 18 political parties, seven civic initiatives, one independent candidate and four coalitions, with a total of 1,235 candidates running.