UNMIK Headlines 21 February
Kosovo wants parallel structures dismissed, Serbia wants autonomy (dailies)
Koha Ditore reports that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi said that the main topic in the dialogue with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic was the necessity of dismissal of Serb security structures in northern Kosovo. Dacic said that discussions mostly focused on Serbia’s platform to create a Serb municipal community, which would have autonomy. The next meeting will take place on 4 March. It looks like the main agreement between the prime ministers is not to divulge too much to journalists and not reveal many details that could burden the dialogue process.
Under the headline “This is the solution”, Express writes that after two days of talks in Brussels, Serbia has accepted to dismiss its parallel structures, while for the political arrangement of the north, Dacic requested a few days. Sources said that the EU requested for the creation of the association of northern municipalities, which is also acceptable for Pristina, and the agreement could be achieved in the next meeting.
Reformatting to affect all economic departments (Koha Ditore)
According to sources, reformatting the Kosovo Government will affect all major economic departments, as some managers will be replaced and others dismissed. The changes are said to include the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry for Economic Development and that of Infrastructure. The reshuffling may also involve the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development.
“The economic objectives not met so far will not be able to be achieved in the second half of the current ministers’ mandate either,” said a source, who explained that the process doesn’t necessarily mean discharging certain ministers, but reshuffling them to other departments.
No visa liberalization before elections (Tribuna)
International officials close to the team that assesses the implementation of European Commission criteria for Kosovo in the visa liberalization process said there can be no liberalization until new elections take place. The European Commission is very interested in seeing how political parties will behave in next elections, especially in the aspect of finances. “Funding of parties has been shown by experience in the region to be the key to fighting of organized crime and corruption,” said an unidentified official.
Hoxhaj: In the UN step by step (dailies)
Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said that integration of Kosovo in the international community is unstoppable; no one can stop the flow of the history. In an interview for the daily Today’s Zaman, he said that UN membership will be achieved step by step, and that there is no doubt that one day Kosovo will be part of the UN.
Fund for the north, only on paper (Tribuna)
Even though more than a month passed from the reached agreement between Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi and Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic in Brussels to allocate a special fund for the development of northern Kosovo with Serb majority, this has yet to happen. The agreement foresaw the creation of a special budget unit, which would authorize the state treasury to open an account at one of the commercial banks that would be selected by the EU Special Representative. However, this did not happen either. The deputy minister of Economy and Finances said that they are working towards this but nothing concrete has been done yet. He stated that even the people who would be part of the commission that would deal with managing these funds have not been nominated.
It remains unclear whether the special fund for the north will be financed by the funds allocated by the Government of Kosovo or by creating a special fund for the north from the taxes that would be collected at northern customs points at Gates 1 and 31 without going through the Kosovo budget.
Interior Ministry devises new tender for passports (Zëri)
Kosovo’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is in the process of preparing a tender for producing biometric passport so as to be able to give it to a German company. The paper alleges the ministry has only formally announced the bid and that it has already tailored specifications of the tender to fit the German company which cooperates with the Austrian company OeSD that was involved in the so-called passports affair. Officials at the Ministry of Interior denied charges and said that the process is very transparent; no bidder is favoured more than the others.
Haradinaj: We should soften the north (dailies)
Talking about the political dialogue in Brussels, the leader of Alliance for Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, said that does not expect bad news. The solution for the north, according to him, is to soften the north, which means creating conditions to hold elections in the north and disband Serb parallel structures there.