Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, said today that Kosovo is determined to meet the final criteria for visa liberalisation – the border demarcation with Montenegro. After meeting the newly-appointed head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, Mustafa said that Brussels should pressure Serbia into implementing the agreements reached in the EU-brokered dialogue so far and added that Kosovo remains committed to this process. Apostolova asked Mustafa to brief her on the Kosovo Government’s concrete measures against corruption and nepotism.

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, told the Kosovo Government today that he withdrew the bill for the ratification of the border agreement with Montenegro from the Assembly last week, “because circumstances were not right to move forward on the matter”. Mustafa said: “there was a lot of pressure and also individual threats against MPs. I was not talking about any specific political party when I mentioned conditions, but I did say that we would not accept any conditions.

Political analyst, Shkelzen Maliqi, said in an interview for the paper that the Kosovo Government did not properly manage the issue of the border demarcation with Montenegro. Maliqi also said that contrary to claims made by opposition parties, the demarcation agreement is not dead. Maliqi further said that two sovereign countries can openly discuss the logical correction of the border. He denied that the opposition was a factor in the withdrawal of the demarcation bill from the Assembly last week.

Kosovo Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, said today that the government will very soon resend to the Assembly the draft law on the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro. Mustafa said that he would call a meeting with opposition representatives before sending the bill to the Assembly. Mustafa said he would schedule a meeting with the Serbian List, but added that the government will not agree to anyone’s conditions in exchange for their votes in favor of the demarcation agreement.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted against beginning of negotiations on the liberalisation of visas for citizens of Kosovo. The S&D Group remains strongly in favour of visa liberalisation, however this can only begin when the government of Kosovo has addressed all the outstanding issues.

Kosovo’s Minister for European Integration, Bekim Collaku, said in an interview for RTV Dukagjini that the latest by January next year, the people of Kosovo will be able to travel without visas in EU member states. Collaku said Brussels once again confirmed for Kosovo’s European future with the positive vote by the European Parliament’s Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

Oliver Ivanović assesses that Kosovo will have early elections by the end of the year. Explaining this position, the most famous prisoner of Kosovo, whose Citizens' Initiative SDP is part of the Serbian List in the Kosovo parliament, says that the withdrawal of the proposal of ratification of the agreement on the demarcation with Montenegro from the agenda, for the current government of Isa Mustafa is "the last nail into their own coffin."

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić last night in Gračanica has sent a message to Albanian politicians in Pristina not to hide behind the MPs of the Serbian List, and not to shift cowardly the responsibility for the outcome of yesterday's session of Parliament, with the agenda on the ratification of the agreement on the demarcation with Montenegro.

Montenegro has unfortunately recognized Kosovo as independent, and now Podgorica and Pristina are in dispute over a piece of territory that belongs to neither.

This is what Milovan Drecun (SNS), chairman of the Serbian Assembly's Committee on Kosovo and Metohija, has told Sputnik.

Instead this territory - the subject of a contentious demarcation agreement - belongs to the Republic of Serbia, Drecun said.

Kosovo’s Minister of labor and Social Welfare and spokesperson for the government, Arban Abrashi, told Klan Kosova on Thursday that the withdrawal of demarcation deal from the agenda of the Assembly was the most rational choice, given the situation. “It has been a pragmatic and rational step, since a number of MPs were blackmailed and there was public incentive for the citizens. The opposition is sending signals to the world that we have problems with Montenegro,” Abrashi said.