Headlines - 21.01.2014 Serbia’s road towards EU, conditioned with Kosovo (Koha Ditore) Today, Tuesday, Serbia, opens negotiations for membership in the European Union, which marks one of the main steps of the process of EU enlargement. At an inter-governmental conference, of the level of ministers from the EU side and that of the Prime Minister and his deputy on Serbia’s side, the process of negotiations for membership, will start formally. At the formal opening of the negotiations for membership, Serbia will today also receive the message that it should reach “comprehensive normalization of the relations with Kosovo, in a form of a legal obligatory agreement by the end of the negotiations for membership.” Serbia assured opening of the negotiations, thank to an extraordinary positive report of the EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, who also used the expression “impressed,” with Serbia’s performance on fulfillment of the agreement with Kosovo.  Fuele: Relations with Kosovo, condition for Serbia (Epoka e Re) The European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, Stefan Fuele, stated in an interview for Radio Deutche Welle, that relations with Kosovo will be the main condition during the negotiations for Serbia’s membership in the EU.  “One of the main conditions for Serbia now is relations with Kosovo. Belgrade does not recognize independence of Kosovo proclaimed in 2008. However, the Government in Belgrade signed the agreement with the Government of Kosovo, which foresees a wide autonomy for Serb community in Kosovo, but at the same time, limits Belgrade’s direct impact on these communities,” said Fuele. Return of cadastral records blocked (Zëri) For two years now, Kosovo cadastral records are not being returned by Serbian authorities and the Government of Kosovo insists the EU should get involved in the issue. However, this is being opposed by the Assembly’s legislation commission which argues that the supervised independence is over and that the Government is continuing to draft laws that bring back international supervision in Kosovo. The draft law in question aims to set up an agency for property verification where the key role is attributed to the EU special representative and not Kosovo institutions. This, according to member of legislation commission Arsim Bajrami, is in conflict to the Constitution of Kosovo. Xhemajli wants KLA law to be adopted by March 10 (Tribuna) Muharrem Xhemajli, chairman of the KLA War Veterans, said Kosovo’s Parliament should adopt the law on KLA by March 10^th, otherwise KLA veterans would organize protests demanding their rights. Xhemajli’s statement comes as a reaction to recent statements made by AAK senior official Ahmet Isufi and KSF Minister Agim Ceku. Isufi namely said the requests of war veterans would be met when AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj becomes prime minister of Kosovo, whereas Ceku reacted by saying that current prime minister Hashim Thaci will meet the demands of the war veterans. Ceku: There is no political agenda with war veterans (Epoka e Re) In an interview for the paper, KSF Minister Agim Ceku said it was not right to criticize for lack of engagement the government’s committee for the verification of KLA war veterans. Ceku said that the adoption of the law on KLA would speed up the verification process. Ceku also said that the government has no political agenda with the veterans. “No one should have doubts that there is lack of readiness, lack of commitment or that there is a political agenda,” Ceku was quoted as saying. Kosovo outside 22 regional organizations (Koha) Agreement on the use of footnote for Kosovo’s regional representation did not bring any new membership in regional initiatives, reports the paper. As such, Kosovo remains outside 22 regional mechanisms and in the two years since the footnote agreement, it only managed to be accepted in 20 such initiatives. Officials at the Foreign Ministry said implementation of agreement on Kosovo’s representation encountered continuous obstacles and its effect was limited. They blamed Serbia for failing to respect the agreement while civil society members claim the fault is with Kosovo institutions which asked for no accountability from EU High Representative Catherine Ashton regarding Serbia’s obstructions. Albanians in Belgium protest against Serbia’s talks for EU membership (Koha) Around 200 members of the Albanian community in Belgium protested on Monday in front of the EU Foreign Service against the European Union’s decision to start membership negotiations with Serbia. Protesters said the EU “was rewarding the aggressor instead of the victim”, “Serbia has failed to meet requirements for recognizing Kosovo”, “Belgrade failed to apologize for the genocide it committed in Kosovo” and that “Serbia was not assuming responsibility for shedding light on the fate of missing persons”.