Bishop of Ras and Prizren Teodosije said that claims of Kosovo Deputy Foreign Minister, Petrit Selimi, given in an interview to Danas, are unacceptable. Selimi said that "the question of Serbian Orthodox heritage will not be discussed in Brussels, since it was already discussed in Vienna, within the Ahtisaari plan."
Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic said that he is convinced that amendment on particular positions related to the negotiation chapter 35, which became public, are subject to the correction. "We heard one side, but didn’t hear the other. Germany and United Kingdom are serious countries, as well our neighbour Croatia, and I think that it is realistic to withdraw the amendment. There is such a possibility, given the seriousness and responsibility of Serbia," said Selakovic.
The political representatives of the Kosovo Serbs, not counting officials of the ruling coalition in Serbia, say that no one in the field was too surprised by what is happening now in connection with the Brussels dialogue and European integration.
Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri has rejected the claims that removal of the barricade over the River Iber in Mitrovica has failed. According to her, the barricade will be removed tomorrow, as planned.
The former leader of the Vetevendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, writes in an opinion piece today that the teargas that he threw at the Assembly of Kosovo last week was of small quantity and it was no mass attack, arguing that lots of cans with teargas were thrown in the past towards Vetevendosje activists and dissatisfied protesters. “Moreover, we did not use rubber bullets on Thursday. What is this hysteria and this panic?”
Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told Kosovapress today that Serbia on the one hand is working on the implementation of the Brussels agreement but that on the other hand it continues to support its illegal parallel structures in Kosovo. Tahiri said the Serbian Government on Wednesday made new appointments for parallel structures operating in the municipality of Leposavic. “This once again proves Serbia’s destructive approach,” she said.
The front-page editorial of this daily notes that it has become a routine to seek help from those that Kosovo politicians call with extreme servility “international friends,” every time that they face crisis. “The same is happening with Assembly blockade which is consequence of the abuse of the dialogue with Serbia, producing in this manner illegal, anti-constitutional and dangerous agreements for the stability and functionality of Kosovo… Incapability of the current political class to overcome the status-quo, means failure to keep a state.
The Kosovo Government presented to the European Union today a report on the last six months of the dialogue with Belgrade. The report signed by Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue Edita Tahiri notes: “In general terms, the Government of Kosovo considers that the Brussels dialogue has made very good progress in this reporting period because there were number of agreements reached in important topics and, the implementation process has been progressing in some of them.
The success of a ‘tough diplomatic battle’ of Belgrade against Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO that was announced by the Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić will be at the first test this week. UNESCO’s Executive Board will gather in Paris on 7 October at its 197th session, where Kosovo’s request for membership in that organization, submitted by Albania in behalf of Kosovo, would be on the preliminary agenda.
Serbia will not have a negotiating position for Chapter 35, which deals in the negotiations with the EU with the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. This chapter does not replace the dialogue on the normalization of relations and therefore there is no need for a negotiating position.
The Chapter 35 will most likely be the first one to open in the negotiations between Serbia and the EU, which, according to all indications and from Brussels and Belgrade, should begin by the end of the year.