Kosovo authorities have accomplished their job with regard to creation and the start of work of the Special War Crimes Court. It is now up to Brussels to accomplish their part of the job, that is, that Netherlands authorities adopt the law on Special Court with the seat in Hague.

Pristina Insight has published the following opinion piece written by Shpend Kursani, who is a PhD researcher in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute, where he researches post-1945 cases of contested states. He is also an external senior research fellow at the Kosovar Center for Security Studies where he conducted an in-depth research on jihadi militancy in Albanian speaking areas of the Balkans.

Pristina has banned transport of books in the Serbian language on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and they are confiscated by customs officials at crossings with Serbia, learned the paper.

The escalation of the problem has been confirmed with the letter sent by the Serbian Post Office on 2 June 2016 to its employees requesting them to warn their clients who are sending books through this company to Kosovo and Metohija, that Post Office wont bear any expenses if books are confiscated at administrative crossings.

Even though the Kosovo institutions have done all that was necessary for the creation of Special War Crimes Court, its start is still pending because Council of the EU still did not adopt the budget of the court, and ratification of the agreement is still pending with the Netherlands.

The chairperson of the biggest opposition party in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, said that the government had unnecessarily “violated the friendship with Serbia when it voted in UNESCO that Serbian churches are handed over to Kosovo”.

“We have recognized Kosovo and this process is done. However, Macedonia had to be very careful when it voted on issue that is not political, but religious and which is specifically sensitive for friendly Serbian nation,” said Zaev.

Both papers carry the following editorial by Timothy Less, director of the Nova Europa political risk consultancy, published initially in NewStatesman.

The front page editorial of the paper notes that return of the biggest opposition party at the Assembly is a warning for return of the tensioned sessions and deepening of political crisis. Vetevendosje movement has ended its boycott of the Parliament, on the verge of the ratification of the agreement for demarcation of the border with Montenegro and re-actualization of the Association/Community of the Serb-majority Municipalities.

European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, spoke to the members of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) about EU’s expectations and the progress in Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Turkey, and Serbia. With regards to Kosovo, Hahn noted that the next challenge is implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA).

Following the Kosovo Assembly’s move to review the draft law on population census in the north of Kosovo, the European Commission (EC) has also stressed the need for the adoption of a law that would enable the process taking place in the four northern municipalities. The EC has encouraged Kosovo institutions to invite international observers to take part in the census, says a press release, the issued by the Ministry of European Integration and the EU Office.

European Union states held off agreeing to ease travel rules for Georgia on Wednesday, and Turkey, Ukraine and Kosovo should also expect more delays in visa waiving as the bloc turns more cautious amid immigration fears, EU delegation sources said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-visas-idUSKCN0YN56F