Headlines - 19.04.2013 Constitution allows “illegal solution” for the north of Kosovo (Koha Ditore) The proposal for the agreement on normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is reported by the paper as granting authorizations to the Association of municipalities with Serb majority in the fields of police and judiciary. This is a procedure which is in contradiction with the applicable laws of Kosovo. Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi was right when he said that the proposal of Baroness Ashton is in the framework of Constitution of Kosovo as one source told the newspaper that Thaçi rests this claim in the article 19 of the Constitution which talks about the implementation of the international law. According to this source, a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbia would be treated as international agreement and would be voted at the Assembly. This will then have priority over the law on the police and courts as international agreements are implemented directly and prevail over local legislation. Kosovo has already said yes to the present proposal of Baroness Catherine Ashton for the agreement with Serbia which foresees a not entirely legal way for the appointment of police commanders, judges and prosecutors. Moreover, it changes regional borders and affects the structure of the courts. Sources of newspaper said that among the 15 points of the agreements there is one point that says that the director of regional directorate of north Mitrovica would be appointed with the proposal of the Association of municipalities with Serb majority. However, the law about police specifies that “regional police directors are appointed from General Director, based on the standards of ranks, positions and job descriptions in the police”. EU diplomats expect Pristina to make further concessions (dailies) Kosovo delegation is reported to have returned halfway from its journey to Pristina and arrived in Brussels as the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Catherine Ashton cancelled her scheduled visit to Croatia to host yet another meeting between Kosovo and Serbia this afternoon. Koha Ditore quotes EU officials as saying that the parties were very close to an agreement and that they expect that this will be reached on Friday. “We have seen that the Kosovo side is saying it has accepted the proposal agreement in entirety while the Serb side claims it has accepted 14 out of 15 proposals. So we were never so close”, said the unnamed official from the EU. They noted that they expect the compromise to be made precisely in the questionable point of the proposal by modifying it so that it becomes acceptable for Serbia but also have Kosovo “win something” as well. In this regard, the Kosovo side is to be offered a “positive formula” which will speak of Kosovo’s non-hindrance in the process of European integrations. Very close to an agreement (Epoka e Re) Epoka e Re quotes Bekim Çollaku, advisor of Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi, as saying that Pristina and Belgrade are very close to an agreement. He said he was optimistic that the agreement will be achieved in the coming days. In an interview for the paper, Çollaku said that all points of the proposal are in accordance with Constitution of Kosovo while point 14 is proposed from the Kosovar side and it is crucial for the state of Kosovo. According to him, the draft-agreement does not change much from the previous one. Janjic: Agreement will be signed on Friday at 15:00 hrs (Kosova Sot) Dusan Janjic, director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Serbia, said he expects Belgrade and Pristina to sign the agreement on Friday at 15:00 hrs. “According to some information I received a couple of days ago, the agreement should be signed on Friday at 15:00 hrs. Let us see if this information, which comes from bureaucratic circles, is correct. I believe it is correct,” Janjic added. European Parliament drops footnote for Kosovo (dailies) European Parliament adopted yesterday a resolution for Kosovo which calls for the dropping of the use of footnote and the asterisk symbol next to the name of Kosovo. From now on, EP in all its documents will refer to Kosovo without any accompanying symbol and delegations from Kosovo will be received just as those of any other independent state. The resolution was proposed by the rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek who said that European Parliament sent a strong message for the need of an urgent solution in the Kosovo dialogue. “EU’s positive influence in Kosovo is questioned by the lack of unity. This has also a negative impact in Kosovo’s participation in international efforts to fight corruption and organized crime such as blocking its membership in Europol”, said Lunacek. At the same time, the Government of Kosovo issued a statement thanking the European Parliament for passing resolution on Kosovo which, it said, promotes European values for Kosovo. “The Government thanks each and every member of European Parliament for the support to Kosovo through initiating and adopting the resolution”, reads the statement. The Government also expressed its commitment in implementing necessary standards and criteria for Kosovo’s integration in the EU and NATO. Kurti calls for investigations against Thaçi and his role in the talks (Koha Ditore) Members of Vetëvendosje movement in the Kosovo Assembly have started requesting from deputies of other parties to sign an initiative for establishing a commission which would investigate Kosovo Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi, and his role in the process of the dialogue with Serbia. Two opposition political parties expressed reservations with the initiative of Vetëvendosje, while PDK has called the initiative of Vetëvendosje political adolescence. Krasniqi: Privatization of PTK does not have a legal basis (Koha Ditore) Kosovo Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi said that the decision of the Kosovo Government to privatize 75 percent of Kosovo Post and Telecom shares is illegal and should be invalidated. “I guarantee the deputies and the public that there is no legal basis and no law based on which Vala has been privatized. Anyone who supports this privatization should know that it is supporting an illegal privatization,” stated Krasniqi. Ivanovic: Inclusion into the Kosovo system, suicide (Zëri) Kosovo Serb representative from the north Milan Ivanovic said that Serbia’s institutions in Kosovo are not parallel and that their possible inclusion into the Kosovo system would be equal to a suicide. “We as a healthcare institution cannot be part of a system of a quasi state but we can only be included in Serbia’s system as this is the only way to enable our patients to receive adequate medical protection”, said Ivanovic who is also director of the healthcare centre in north Mitrovica.