Kosovo’s Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Ferat Shala, said that after carrying out all necessary technical and legal measures, his ministry has concluded that the Mitrovica North wall is illegal and as such needs to be demolished. He said that wall was unnecessary and fails to meet urban standards. Furthermore, Shala added, it sends a bad message to the citizens of Mitrovica. Shala said they are waiting for a decision from the government of Kosovo on the future course of action but stressed that the best solution would be for the wall issue to be resolved through dialogue.

The inauguration of the main Mitrovica bridge set to take place today has been postponed and a new date will be announced after an agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, said Maja Kocijancic, European Union’s foreign affairs spokesperson. “We are continuing discussions with the two sides to find an acceptable solution on all issues relating to works in the Mitrovica bridge and the ‘King Peter’ street, including a new date for the reopening,” Kocijancic said.

Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has decided to dismiss Marko Djuric as head of the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo, reports the news website quoting a source from the Serbian List. “The decision will be made public in the coming days,” said the source adding that the reason behind Vucic’s dismissal of Djuric has to do with the design of the Serbian train that was bound for Kosovo.

A group of University of Pristina students gathered today in the university campus, namely in front of the unfinished Orthodox Church building, and tried to put of pictures of massacres Serb forces committed against the Albanian population. However, the Kosovo Police reacted by preventing the students from putting up the pictures. Students said their action was initiated following provocations from Serbia and as a sign of protest against the priests who held a mass at this church seen as a relic of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Kosovo.

In an interview with Kosovapress, Mitrovica North Mayor Goran Rakic said the wall will not be demolished while Kosovo police special unit (ROSU) cannot go to the north again. “Tensions have increased following recent events and citizens are rightfully concerned. I consider someone wanted to use this situation for political purposes and I appeal to all parties in talks in Brussels to decrease tensions and the top priority should be maintaining peace in these parts because there is no other alternative,” Rakic is quoted.

Representatives of the Pristina-based Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) told a press conference today that the Kosovo Assembly had a poor performance in 2016, by adopting 52 laws out of a scheduled 141 laws. KDI’s Albert Krasniqi said another negative practice by the current legislative is the adoption of laws with fast procedures, most notably the adoption of the state budget. Krasniqi said the KDI finds unacceptable the tendency to increase the per diems of MPs, given the poor performance of the Assembly and the dire economic situation in Kosovo.

Serb telecom operator “MTS’ D.O.O” is expected to put up antennas in 30 locations across Kosovo and will be able to issue 60,000 numbers in the market as part of the telecommunications agreement reached between Pristina and Belgrade delegations in Brussels. The operating license for the Serb operator was issued by the Authority of Electronic and Postal Communications (RAEPC) right after Kosovo was granted a dialing prefix by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said RAEPC board chairman Kreshnik Gashi.

According to a study carried out by the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLSP), Kosovo government fulfilled only 26 percent of the criteria set out by the EU’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) although the deal entered into force on 1 April 2016. Kosovo’s Deputy Minister for European Integration, Anila Statovci, said it was difficult to report on concrete steps Kosovo institutions have taken in implementing SAA but she did mention steps in adoption of internal market standards, competition policies as well as aspects relating to the rule of law and good governance.

Kosovapress reported that officials from opposition parties in the municipal assembly of Mitrovica – the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) – walked out of the urgent meeting called to discuss the construction of the wall by Serbian leadership in Mitrovica North. The meeting was expected to result in a joint statement condemning the construction of the wall but the PDK and LDK representatives left the meeting after accusing Mitrovica Mayor Agim Bahtiri of not allowing a debate.

The news website reports that a Kosovo Police container that served as a checkpoint in the Kroi i Vitakut neighborhood in Mitrovica North was burnt on Sunday evening. Citing unnamed sources, Kosovapress reports that there were no human casualties during the incident. Besim Hoti, Kosovo Police Deputy Director for the north, told Kallxo that the police had not used the container for a certain period of time.