Kosovo, from supervised independence to potential EU candidate

SEPT/OCT 2013
Bi-monthly newsletter of Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Republic of Kosovo. No.12 Year III.
Greece strongly
supports the European
perspective of Kosovo
5 questions with the Head
of the Greek Liaison Office
Kosovo’s
Path to Gender
Equality
Kosovo now
recognised
by 101 UN
members
NewDiplomat
Kosovo’s
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Kosovo, from supervised independence
to potential EU candidate
By Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi
The end of the supervised independence was a major beginning
for the Republic of Kosovo. It
was the moment that marked our
political maturity and increased
our social responsibilities. Like
ever before, these two categories walk hand-in-hand: maturity is achieved only through
the giving of responsibility, and
vice versa. The people of Kosovo
themselves decided their status
after decades of neglect and oppression that almost ended with
a genocide of unseen proportions
in Europe after World War Two.
Many challenges lie ahead for the
new state of Kosovo. However,
these are ordinary challenges for
independent states and responsible societies. They are reasonable, acceptable and surmountable. This moment remains very
important in the recent history of
our state. We have succeeded in
being treated equally with other
states, and we now consider ourselves as equal with them. Equal
treatment promotes, and raises
awareness for, the joint responsibilities that we have towards our
people, our neighborhood and
the entire democratic world. Today it is time for the Europeanisation of our region. It is these
very principles that continue to
remind us of the great truths
about our economic, political and
cultural interdependence. There
can be no cooperation if you are
alone in this. Although national
pride in the Balkan societies can
be high, the states are small and
vulnerable. We must remember
that the Kosovar government
and institutions were supposed
to implement a certain number of
Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi: Kosovo’s efforts culminated with the decision of the Council of the European Union to
authorise the European Union to start talks on Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo.
provisions to ensure full minority protection, positive outreach
towards all strata of society, the
protection of heritage, and full
decentralisation of the political
power to the local municipalities.
Following the positive finding of the International Court of
Justice that confirmed legality of
Kosovo Declaration of Independence and dismissed the claims
put forth by the Serbian government, the EU started negotiations intended to normalise relations between the two former
foes and put them on the path of
EU integration. I have personally
met the Prime Minister of Serbia
to find solutions to the every-day
problems of the people, which
have been caused by Serbia’s less
than forthcoming policies in the
past. Serbia’s stance is quickly
changing: we initially agreed to
the recognition of Kosovo diplomas, car plates, and to exchange
liaison officers in each other’s
capital cities. After ten intense
rounds of negotiations, and six
months of direct discussions,
the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and I recently signed a
historic accord that resolves our
most contentious disputes — the
first-ever agreement to be signed
during the deep and protracted
conflict between our two countries. In the agreement, Serbia
must dismantle the illegal political, judicial and security structures that it supports in northern Kosovo. As result, there will
be one multiethnic Kosovo police force with a single chain of
command. An elected Serb regional commander will lead the
new police region of Mitrovica
North. In addition, the courts
in the north will function under
Kosovo laws, and we will recruit
and appoint more Kosovo Serb
judges. Our agreement provides
additional extensive rights for a
northern part of Kosovo that has
a majority of ethnic Serbs: a special solution that will integrate
them into Kosovo’s institutions
and society through the creation
of Serb-majority municipalities
that guarantee political, economic and socio-cultural rights. Also,
Kosovo obtained a unique country code and reached a deal with
Serbia on energy issues. For all
of the economic problems confronting our continent, Kosovo
and Serbia are drawn together by
the prospect of participating in
the EU, with its vision of a peaceful and prosperous Europe that
has open borders for people and
goods. This is a vision well worth
working towards and compromising for. As Prime Minister,
I’m blessed to lead a country
that has fully embraced European values. Kosovo is Europe’s
youngest state, but we are al-
ready playing a positive role. We
have the lowest debt compared to
GDP ratio in all of Europe. We also have the highest GDP growth
in the Eurozone, which Kosovo
is a de facto member of through
our special relationship with the
German Bundesbank. In June of
this year our efforts culminated
with the decision of the Council
of the European Union to authorize the European Union to start
talks on Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Kosovo.
Kosovo has invested public
funds in infrastructure and education, and we have plans to
make Kosovo a dynamic economy tied to both the regional and
European markets. In the energy
sector we will build new capacities, especially as we plan to develop the mining sector. We will
continue to invest in education
to ensure that Kosovar innovators and businesses are competitive in the difficult global circumstances. We intend to keep
prudent and conservative fiscal
policies, but still heavily invest
in projects that will enable longterm growth and prosperity. We
are improving the tax revenues
every year, and have tested the
electronic trading of bonds, supported by the US Treasury and
EU. Fighting corruption and organised crime are high on the
agenda: this will mean that investors can be sure of a fair and
prompt legal system, and the
people will also know that freedom brought with it equality.
We have shifted gears in
fighting corruption and organised crime, as the EU progress
report has noted.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 5
2
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Diplomatic Bits & Pieces
5 QUICK QUESTIONS
SHORTNEWS
FROM THE EMBASSIES
Greece strongly supports the European
perspective of Kosovo, fully aware of the
implications of that position
UNSC Report: historic
agreement and fundamental
progress towards normalisation of relations
The report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Interim
Administration in Kosovo stated that the positive steps taken by
both Belgrade and Pristina in the EU-facilitated talks have resulted
in historic agreements and fundamental progress towards normalisation of their relations. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
welcomed the decision of the European Council, during its June
meeting, to reaffirm the European perspective for the region. This
is in keeping with the important strategic commitments made at the
EU summit at Thessaloniki in June 2003. Mr. Ban commended the
leadership in both Pristina and Belgrade for demonstrating a serious and steadfast commitment to their dialogue, while also stressing
the importance of the implementation of this agreement.
Relations between Greece and Kosovo are based on
sincere friendship and the awareness of our common interest
in promoting peace, stability and prosperity
1
What is the best thing about working and living in Kosovo?
There are a lot of great things about
living and working in Kosovo. Firstly,
the people: they are very warm, friendly
and always make me feel welcome. This
is not restricted to the everyday citizens,
but also those I work with in the political leadership, both in government and
opposition. Secondly, Kosovo is rich both
in natural and in cultural heritage. The
Kosovar landscape is wonderful, and the
cultural and religious monuments found
throughout are rightfully considered sites
of outstanding world heritage. Friends
sometimes ask me whether I encounter
hostility in Kosovo considering Greece’s
non-recognition. I have never, however,
felt any hostility directed towards me. Of
course the question of recognition comes
up often in my talks with both the Kosovar
leadership and ordinary people, but that
is absolutely natural and is always done in
both a friendly manner and good faith.
How big is the Greek presence in
Kosovo? The Greek presence in
Kosovo is not large. Except for
the Greek contingents of KFOR (currently
112) and EULEX (currently 38), whose
presence here is temporary anyway, we
do not know the number of Greeks living
and working in Kosovo. This is because
Greek law does not oblige Greeks living
abroad to register with consular offices.
Therefore we only know some of them,
estimated at below a hundred. Also as
commercial transactions between Greece
and Kosovo increase more and more
Greeks travel to Kosovo, which is good for
our relations.
How do you see Greek-
Kosovar relations developing?
Relations between Greece and
Kosovo are based on sincere friendship
and the awareness of our common interest
in promoting peace, stability and prosperity. In spite of the problem of non-recognition, we see each other as friends sharing
the same neighborhood and aspirations
and, to a large extent, similar difficulties.
Greece strongly supports the European
perspective of Kosovo, fully aware of the
implications of that position. Last March,
2
3
President Jahjaga meets with the President
of France, Mr. François Hollande
Dr. Dimitris A. Moschopoulos
Ambassador, Head of the Greek Liaison Office
Foreign Minister Hoxhaj visited Athens
and was received by the Greek Foreign
Minister. We have also agreed that Kosovo
will soon open a Trade Office in Athens, in
light of the increasing commercial activities between us, activities that we want to
further expand.
What is your favorite part of
Kosovo?Kosovo is very rich in
both natural and cultural sites.
The Rugova Valley is absolutely spectacular and awe-inspiring. In the Serbian
monasteries I find timeless beauty, both
cultural and natural, and infinite tranquility. I especially like Prizren, and I hope
that the efforts to protect its beauty and
history will succeed. This city is of unique
importance for both Kosovo and for the
region as a whole.
What is your current reading list? I must confess I have
much less time than I would wish
for reading that is not dictated by professional necessity. Currently I am reading
“Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and
Stalin” by Timothy Snyder. A riveting and
beautifully written, but also horrifying
and depressing account of the unspeakable sufferings of the people of Ukraine,
Belarus, Poland, western Russia and the
eastern Baltic coast from the early 1930s
to the end of the Second World War. It is
a scholarly account that is both eye-opening and heart-wrenching. I am also reading a book by James Naughtie called “The
Making of Music, a Journey With Notes”.
This book offers a trip into the world of
music, a world which is a never-ending
source of pleasure and solace for me. I
am reading it with a sense of pleasurable
complicity as I see that it is written by an
author who feels the same fascination
with music as I do.
President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, met the
President of the Republic of France, Mr. François Hollande, in Brdo
near Kranj, Slovenia. President Jahjaga stated that Kosovo’s success is because of both its citizens and institutions and also the
international community. She also added that Kosovo’s international
consolidation is being carried out with the help of its friends, including France. President Hollande expressed his interest in the developments in Kosovo including not only the process of building a legal
state but also its EU integration developments. He expressed particular interest in the economic development of Kosovo and its capacities,
and the help which France and the EU might provide on this issue.
4
Hoxhaj calls for Canada’s
support on Kosovo’s membership
in international organisations
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Enver
Hoxhaj, during his official visit to Canada met Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Canada, John Baird. Minister Hoxhaj expressed the gratitude of Kosovo’s people and government for the support Canada
gave during the war and is still giving for state building. The Minister also expressed his gratitude for Canada’s support of Kosovo’s
membership in the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and
recently the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Minister Baird expressed Canada’s support for Kosovo’s EuroAtlantic integration processes, as well as Kosovo’s path towards
strengthening international subjectivity and membership in international and regional organisations.
5
Montenegro opens embassy in Kosovo
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Enver
Hoxhaj, welcomed Radovan Miljanic, who submitted appointment
letters to the position of charge d’affaires at the Embassy of Montenegro in Kosovo. Minister Hoxhaj outlined the bilateral cooperation
between the two countries, expressing the will of the Republic of
Kosovo to strengthen their relations with Montenegro in many areas. The charge d’affaires at the Embassy of Montenegro in Kosovo
expressed his commitment to working in Kosovo to strengthen
overall relations and exchanges between the two countries.
NewDiplomat
Kosovo’s
nos scimus,
non solum
scribere
Kosovo’s New Diplomat is a bi-monthly publication of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Republic of Kosovo / Publisher: Petrit Selimi / Editors of this issue:
Astrit Zatriqi, Drilon Zogaj / This publication is supported by KS Talks EU
program of British Council Kosovo, sponsored by British Embassy in Prishtina and MFA Kosovo / Views expressed in the
publication do not necessarily reflect the views of sponsoring institutions or publisher / Contact: Government building, Mother
Theresa str. PN, 10000 Republic of Kosovo; email: [email protected]; web: www.mfa-ks.net; Twitter: @MFAKosovo
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
3
sep t/oct 2013
Diplomatic Bits & Pieces
NEWKOSOVOREADS
Title: Kosovo - Country
on the move
Publisher: Seltmann +
Soehne
Publication date: 2013
The Balkans is presented in
a way that dispenses with
all the usual clichés in these
magnificent coffee-table
books by Doris and Jürgen
Sieckmeyer, a husband and
wife team. The everlasting
cheerful loud laughter of
children everywhere – that is
Kosovo. The country and its
inhabitants are very young:
Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe, with the
average age being 23 while
40 percent of the population
is under 18. The greeting
«Welcome aboard, ladies and
gentlemen, dear children!»
is only possible on a flight to
Kosovo. Kosovo is situated
in southeastern Europe
between Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia.
The country is not very large:
EVERY ISSUE OF NEW DIPLOMAT WE WILL RECOMMEND
BOOKS, REPORTS OR WEBSITES WITH INTERESTING AND
UPDATED CONTENT ON KOSOVO.
in less than four hours you
can drive from north to south. High forested mountains
and two large fertile plains
- the Field of Blackbirds and
Dukagjini – characterise the
green landscape and you
are always surrounded by
the beautiful mountain backdrop. There are impressive
canyons such as the Rugova
Gorge or Kaçanik. Kosovo
has many beautiful rivers
and several large reservoirs.
There are the seven natural
wonders: the Rugova gorge,
the Mirusha waterfall, Brezovice , the Sharr Mountains,
the source of the White Drin,
the bifurcation of the river
Nerodime and the Cave of
Gadime. The most impressive thing about this country,
however, is the people.
They had a terrible war and
almost every family mourns
a victim. However, hatred
does not shape their life: the
future is the most important
thing.
KOSOVO NOW RECOGNISED BY 101 UN MEMBERS
In the last twelve months, Kosovo has been recognised by Yemen, El Salvador, Guyana, Egypt, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Burundi, East
Timor, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Dominica. After membership in IMF, World Bank, EBRD, Kosovo recently became a member of the Council of
Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
11 JUNE 2013
Yemen recognises Kosovo
Yemen announced its recognition
of the Republic of Kosovo as an
independent and sovereign state.
The recognition of the Republic of
Kosovo came in a statement issued
by the Foreign Ministry. Therefore, the Yemeni government will
establish diplomatic relations with
the Republic of Kosovo in order
to develop the bilateral relations
and serve thecommon interests of
the two brotherly countries and
peoples in all fields,” the Foreign
Ministry said. The statement
expressed the Yemeni government’s aspiration of the Republic
of Kosovo to exercise its role as a
new member of the international
community to help underpin the
security and stability in the Balkan
region as well as the world.
29 JUNE 2013
El Salvador recognises Kosovo
The government of the Republic of El Salvador decided to
recognise the Republic of Kosovo.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Kosovo announced the recognition
on Twitter, and it was subsequently acknowledged that the Government of El Salvador had taken the
official step of recognising Kosovo
as sovereign and independent nation. This recognition brought the
total number to 101.
13 JUNE 2013
Guyana confirms
recognition of Kosovo
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Republic of Kosovo has confirmed
the recognition by Republic of
Guyana. The two countries signed
a document establishing diplomatic relations thus confirming in
writing the recognition of Kosovo
as sovereign by Guyana.
26 JUNE 2013
Egypt recognizes Kosovo
The Government of Egypt has
taken a decision to recognize
Kosovoas an independent and
sovereign state. The official decision of the recognition of Kosovo
by Egypt was communicated to
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister, Enver
Hoxhaj, by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Egypt and by the Assistant to the President for Foreign
Relations and International Cooperation, Essam Al-Haddad.
Tanzania recognizes Kosovo
Tanzania has recognised Kosovo’s
independence. The news was
confirmed to the Kosovo General
Consulate in New York by the
authorities of Tanzania. Deputy
Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli announced the news in a press conference in Prishtina. According to
the Deputy PM, this country has
been making efforts to recognise
Kosovo for four years and after
some discussions in the parliament, finally decided to recognise
Kosovo’s statehood.
29 OCT 2012
Burundi recognises Kosovo
The Republic of Kosovo has
been recognised by the Republic
of Burundi. The verbal note of
recognition was submitted to the
Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo,
Behgjet Pacolli, by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Burundi Laurent
Kavakure, in Bujumbura, the
country’s capital. During the twoweek tour, Pacolli visited Zambia,
Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya
and South Sudan.
10 NOV 2012
East Timor recognises
Kosovo’s statehood
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Republic of Kosovo has
received a letter from Jose Luis
Guterres, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of East Timor, in which
his country recognises Kosovo's
independence.
11 DEC 2012
28 NOV 2012
Kosovo recognised by
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, received
the verbal note of the official
recognition of the Republic of
Kosovo from Saint Kitts and Nevis,
which confirmed their decision
to formally recognise Kosovo's
independence.
31 MAY 2013
03 OCT 2012
Papua New Guinea recognises Kosovo
The Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has formally informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo that Papua
New Guinea has recognised the independence of the Republic of Kosovo. The Prime Minister of Papua New
Guinea proclaimed the recognition and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo confirmed it. The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Kosovo has received the official notification on recognition. "Today we are officially informed
through our Embassy in Tokyo that the Government of Papua New Guinea made a decision to recognise the
independence of Kosovo," said Artan Behrami, advisor to the Foreign Minister, Enver Hoxhaj.
Dominica recognised
Kosovo’s independence
Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, has
received a verbal note on the
official recognition of Kosovo by
Dominica. Dominica’s authorities
have also sent a letter addressed
to the President of Kosovo, Atifete
Jahjaga, confirming the official
decision of this state on formal
recognition of Kosovo.
4
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
About us & Our events
NEWDIPLOMATS
Religion and Foreign Policy in Kosovo
By the Interfaith Kosovo Team
This August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tony Blair
Faith Foundation, in partnership
with the Balkan Institute and the
University of Prishtina, hosted
a summer course in Prishtina
on “Religion and Foreign Policy: the role of religion in conflict
and post-conflict societies”. The
course brought together thirty
students from over fifteen countries including the United States,
China, Morocco and the Ukraine.
The students were based in Prishtina for two weeks, and had the
opportunity to travel to Prizren,
Recak and Decan. These trips
offered participants valuable insight into the country’s rich and
diverse religious and cultural heritage. The course was taught by
world-renowned historians, diplomats, faith leaders and academics. Courses were taught by Dr.
Ivo Banac, Dr. Miroslav Volf, Dr.
Obrad Savic and Ambassador Zamir Akram, and guest speakers
included Foreign Minister Enver
Hoxhaj, Deputy Foreign Minister
Petrit Selimi, Israeli Ambassador
Daniel Taub, Father Sava Janjic
and Antti Pentikäinen of Finn
Church Aid. Each of these guest
speakers brought to discussions
both their own unique analysis of
the role of religion in foreign policy, and their own experiences within the field. Students focused on
the intersection between religion
and foreign policy not only within the context of the Balkans but
also globally. Dr. Banac’s course,
which considered the history of
religion in the Balkans, emphasized the importance of the region
as a meeting place for Eastern and
Western religious traditions,
and explained the unique blend
of religious and political culture
that this produced. Dr. Banac’s
course was complemented by Dr.
Savic and Ambassador Akram’s
course, which focused on the international importance of the use
of religion as a tool in post-conflict
reconstruction, and its potential to aid reconciliation efforts.
Lastly, Dr. Volf’s course focused
on the importance of religion in
the contemporary globalized world, and the changing role of faith
communities. The final day of
the course was hosted by Father
Sava Janjic and his community
at the Decani Monastery outside
Decan in order to contextualize
these discussions, and to draw
attention to Kosovo as a case study for issues relating to religion
and foreign policy. The Decani
monastery, built in the 14th century by the Serbian King Stefan
Decanski. Today, the fully functioning monastery is a designated
UNESCO world heritage site,
and is home to a community of
twenty-five monks. Father Sava
took course participants on a tour
of the grounds of the monastery,
which included an introduction
to the world-famous frescos on
the walls of the church. He then
continued the day’s discussion on
the role of religion within conflict
and post conflict societies against
the backdrop of this significant
religious and cultural site. Father
Sava’s participation in this discussion was significant not only
because of his active presence on
social media providing an unbiased voice on issues relating
to the role of religion and reconciliation, but also because of his
personal experiences in leading
a religious community during
and after a conflict. Father Sava’s
talk focused on the importance of
religious communities remaining
free from influence of nationalist
ideologies and being faithful to
their spiritual cause. He stated in
particular that religious communities should work to overcome
the boundaries set by nationalist
agendas. To this effect, Father Sava drew on his expertise and experience during the Kosovo War,
where he sheltered many Albanian families at the Decan monastery in an effort to save the lives of
Albanians in the areas surrounding the monastery. With such a
rich history, the Decani Monastery was a very significant place
for the summer program to wrap
up. The monastery not only reflects many of the religious issues
within the history of Kosovo, but
also provides a strong case study
of how religious communities can
work to overcome conflicts within
their wider societies.
such as Croatia, with whom we share a
large common history. Our diplomatic
mission also has excellent cooperation
with this country and its institutions.
What is the best thing about the city
you live in? There are many fascinating
things in this country which has newly
become part of the European Union.
Given its culture, education, infrastructure and overall development, Croatia
has become part of the EU much earlier
than its neighbours. Zagreb, its capital,
is an extraordinary city, with its unique
Austro-Hungarian architecture and
parks which contain hundreds of acres of
greenery. It also has many cultural and
historical landmarks that give visitors an
excellent opportunity to understand the
history of this country.
FATMIRE MUSLIU
of Germany. The power and wealth of
our culture has always fascinated the
Western world and it is still unfortunately not sufficiently well-known to the
world. What is the best thing about
the city you live in? Berlin is a place
that offers extraordinary opportunities
for work, study and recreation, and
opportunities to communicate with the
whole world. The historical aspect of
Berlin is one of the features that makes
it attractive to visitors from all over the
world. Because of its parks,, museums,
ballets, and operas Berlin remains a
favourite place for many. I should also
particularly mention friendly mentality of the German people generally,
discipline, work ethic and a collective
work-conscious mentality. Berlin, a
perfect place to be!
What do you do, where are you
based?I am the Counsellor at the
Embassy of the Republic of Kosovo in
Berlin. What is the most you like
about the job you do? My primary
responsibility is to represent the interests of Kosovo in the Federal Republic
of Germany. The German capital is one
of the most important global political
centres, so it is a great privilege and
extraordinary opportunity to serve my
country in Berlin. The city plays a significant role in the development of the EU
and Europe in general; thus, representing the interests of Kosovo here is a
true delight. Amongst others, one of my
tasks is the presentation of our culture,
traditions and virtues to the people
VISAR RRECAJ
What do you do, where are you
based? Currently I am the Head of
Treaties Division at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
Kosovo. I am in charge of reviewing
the implementation process of treaties
and conventions in Kosovo and the
negotiation of international treaties.
I am based in Prishtina, the capital
of the Republic of Kosovo. What
is the most you like about the job
you do? Being the part of MFA is a
dream come true, and dealing with the
treaties is another challenge I like. The
best part of this job is the opportunity
of being a member of negotiation
teams at the governmental level and
getting the chance to negotiate many
international agreements. This gives
me satisfaction and as a diplomat and
I enjoy being able to serve my country
in the best way. What is the best
thing about the city you live in? I
live in Prishtina, which is the capital
city of the Republic of Kosovo. Having
visited many places around the world,
to me Prishtina is the city that brings
you joy and passion. It is a very young
city and has great brilliant restaurants
and bars serving great food and the
famous Prishtina macchiato . It is a
vivid city that never sleeps!
ALBANA BYLYKBASHI
Follow us on
Twitter
@MFAKosovo
Participants of the Religion and Foreign Policy summer course at Deçan Monastery
GANI MULLIQI
What do you do, where are you
based? I am chargé d’affaires at the
Embassy of the Republic of Kosovo
in Zagreb. Until the new ambassador
takes office, I am responsible for all
the diplomatic aspects of our mission.
Besides the tasks within the public
diplomacy activities, I am also in charge
of consular affairs. What is the most
you like about the job you do? It is not
only a privilege and pleasure, but also a
responsibility to represent your country
in a friendly state. I have to represent the
overall interests of Kosovo and its numerous achievements in all segments of life.
I love this job because I get to know not
only the interesting geography, but also
history, culture and tradition of a country
What do you do, where are you
based? I currently work as a Bilateral
Relations Officer in the Department
of Bilateral Relations and International Organisation of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of Kosovo. I am based in Prishtina,
Kosovo. What is the most you
like about the job you do? TWhen
I returned to Kosovo after living and
studying with my family in Melbourne,
Australia, it confirmed my belief that
I am strongly rooted in Kosovo. Thus
I have come home to Kosovo, trying
to give my support, my knowledge,
and my contribution to our newborn
country. I've had the privilege and
good fortune to have been part of the
MFA since it was established almost
five years ago. It is an honor for me to
be part of a team that does significant
work in shaping the image of our
country as it moves along the path to
global integration and tells the world
who we are. What is the best thing
about the city you live in? I love Prishtina because it has every quality of
our country in one city – it’s vibrant,
challenging, progressive and sometimes confounding; in those ways it’s
just like any other capital in Europe,
yet it is still unique in its own way!
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
5
sep t/oct 2013
Europe
Continued from Page 1
What is important for us to focus
on now is delivering the reforms
that are key to EU integration. We
must continue to strengthen democratic institutions, protect minorities, ensure a just system for all citizens, and create a sustainable model for economic growth. Despite
the fact that Kosovo was born as a
republic in the midst of the worst
financial and economic crisis to
hit the region and the continent in
decades, we have had a consistent
GDP growth of over 5% for five
consecutive years. Our GDP per
capita has doubled from 2007, the
last year of UNMIK. We have employed a Keynesian stimulus package, and increased the salaries of
public employees as well as starting a campaign of reconstruction
that included building a hundred
schools and a major highway to
the Adriatic coast and ports of Albania and Montenegro. Through
our prudent financial policies, we
have remained the least indebted
country in European continent.
Kosovo has got the significant
achievement of being recognised
by 101 countries as sovereign and
independent, including over two
thirds of EU member states, NATO members, the Council of Europe, etc. Important countries
have recently recognised Kosovo’s
statehood. They include Pakistan,
Egypt, Tanzania, Yemen, Guyana
and El Salvador. We have also become a member of the World Bank,
IMF, EBRD, CoE Bank and RCC,
as well as regional organisations
and initiatives. Kosovo’s tireless
efforts in all areas culminated with
the European Council giving the
European Commission the green
light to begin negotiations with Kosovo on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement. Thus, Kosovo,
a potential EU candidate, made the
first official step on its path towards European Union membership.
Let us focus on this huge opportunity given newly to the Republic of
Kosovo, its society and to this part
of the Balkans. This is an oppor-
tunity to open a new and successful chapter of our future; a chapter of free, equal people within independent states that protect and
respect each other through development, peace and cooperation.
Rightly put, from now on, a new
story for all the Balkans will begin.
One of integration in the European
Union and in NATO, where we will
enter as democratic and multi-ethnic states: as independent states
that are part of the great family of
equals
Kosovo’s Path to Gender Equality
Celebrating only five years of independence and following recent
fanfare surrounding its struggle to achieve recognition by 100
members of the United Nations,
Kosovo may not necessarily be the
first country that comes to mind
in contemporary discussions of
women in diplomatic leadership.
Often characterised in terms of its
one-way relationship (or lack thereof) with neighboring Serbia, the
country has much more to offer
than its anecdotal history of ethnic conflict would suggest—specifically in lessons of development as
a post-conflict nation in the often
overlooked regions of southeastern Europe. At the Woodrow
Wilson Center for International
Scholars, Director of the Center’s
Women in Public Service Project Dr. Rangita de Silva de Alwis
welcomed four female delegates
from Kosovo to discuss the changing role and impact of women at
the helm of lawmaking in their
country. Panelists included Senior
Legal Officer at Kosovo’s Ministry
of Justice Venera Kabashi; Council Member for the Capital Municipality of Prishtina Meliza Haradinaj; UN Populations Fund Project
Coordinator Linda Abazi-Morina;
and Chief of Cabinet for Kosovo’s
Deputy Prime Minister as well as
Minister of Local Government Administration Blerta Miftari. Kosovo does have an impressive track
record of advancing women to positions at the fore of domestic and
international policy initiatives.
President Atifete Jahjaga was elected in April 2011 by members of the
Parliament as Kosovo’s first female, and the youngest ever, Head
of State. Jahjaga previously served
as Deputy Director of the Kosovo
Police, holding rank as Major General. She finds herself among only a handful of female leaders at
comparable levels of decision-making power in the region. Kosovo’s
President symbolises what panelist Venera Kabashi called a “mentality change” in their society that
“countries in transition” are in
need of, and which Kosovo so far
seems to be modeling quite well.
The panelists each individually
spoke on an issue among the many
facing themselves and their fellow countrywomen, elaborating
on modern conditions and the associated regulations in place or in
the process of being altered. These
areas included affirmative action
and quotas for female political representation, advancing women
in local governments as Mayors,
addressing violence against women in private as well as public
spheres, and the rise of women
in diplomacy across disciplinary
fields. Underlying the logistics of
their presentations though was a
message that surfaced repeatedly
throughout the talk: that rhetoric
does not give rise to action.
Panelists lauded the country’s
“highly advanced legislative
framework” with a 30 percent quota for female members of all political parties, but acknowledged
“advantages and gaps” in the
system, endorsing the ultimate
goal of changing attitudes towards women in such a way that at
some point quotas will no longer
be necessary. Even with its flaws
the quota system produces material results, with compliance by
a majority of municipalities—a
shortcoming apparent in other
points of the discussion. Blerta
Miftari spoke on the difficulties of
enforcing the 2004 Law for Gender Equality adopted under the
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The law
aims to establish equal participation for women and men in local
governments by designating those
administrations themselves to organise institutions and activities
that tackle inequality between the
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council
sexes, intended to lead naturally
to equality in political representation. However there is no federal budget allocated to gender
equality measures, so local governments are responsible for determining their own budgets. At
first this placement of responsibility seems reasonable, but Miftari
pointed out that only 23 out of 37
municipalities have elected an official for gender equality; those presently in charge of the budget for
much of the country have no engagement with the issues for which
they are planning alleviative measures. How can they be expected to
enforce them?
Linda Abazi-Morina of the UN
Populations Fund discussed domestic violence and policies aimed at better addressing the issue, touching on the basic but important problem of defining the
term. Previously, Kosovo law recognized domestic violence as any
such behavior between a cohabitant couple, only recently expan-
ding the definition to cover violence against the elderly, children, and those with disabilities.
Abazi-Morina echoed Miftari in
pointing to budget issues as a major constraint on improving life situations of those subjected to violence, but happily shared an increase in shelters and investigation rooms equipped to comfort
victims and, if present, their children. These measures are changing
the culture surrounding the sensitive issue, allowing for a more
appropriate treatment of victims
in relation their perpetrators and
creating a society that won’t accept
the behavior as routine. Representative Haradinaj echoed her colleagues in reaffirming the importance of having living laws instead
of meaningless statutes, calling for
the “voluntary implementation of
principles of gender equality” as
necessarily preceded by a change
in sociocultural mentality shift. As
Kabashi mentioned at the beginning of the talk, laws can hasten
the speed of this shift, building
channels for success and producing role models—not just for aspiring female youth in Kosovo, but
for their families as well. Kabashi
noted a recent study citing an indirect symbolic impact that females
in leadership positions can have
for fathers with daughters: when
fathers see females elected to leadership positions in their country,
they want their daughters to
achieve the same. Without a place
at the decision-making table for
women, half of the population is
robbed of a voice. This phenomenon is a human rights issue, not a
gender role misunderstanding; value changes that go beyond writing
laws will cement generation-spanning change. Kosovo’s female population is poised to help continue to close the already-waning
gap in equality between women
and men. Their male colleagues’
willingness to carry their weight
in the struggle will determine its
success.
6
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Europe
Kosovo’s opening of SAA talks with the EU decision, an a
cknowledgement of Kosovo’s progress regarding both democratic
governance and the normalisation of relations with Serbia
Kosovo declared its independence
on 17 February, 2008, and today
is recognised by over a hundred
UN members, all but four NATO member states and a considerable number of nations across
the globe. We have established
diplomatic relations with nearly
sixty states. With the exception of
Serbia, we have been recognised
by all our neighbouring countries and enjoy admirable regional co-operation. Securing additional statehood recognitions and
strengthening Kosovo’s international position in multilateral organisations are among our most
important foreign policy objectives. We are trying to reach that
through close bilateral cooperation with countries across the
geographical and political spectrum; with the EU, NATO and US
being principle pillars of our democracy. The landmark Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia
reached in April of this year requires that all parallel structures,
such as police or courts in the Serbia-populated Northern Kosovo,
should be dismantled. The Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia
also outlines the guiding principles for the normalisation of inter-state relations and is a victory for both countries. It is a victory for our European future above
the bitter past and an opportunity
for inter-state political reconciliation and chance to pursue good
neighbourly relations. Notwithstanding this, the Agreement is
a victory that preserves Kosovo’s
institutional, legal, and administrative unity and functionality, because Serbia has accepted Kosovo’s
political system and constitutional
order. Since April 19, there are new
political dynamics in Kosovo that
have led to substantial changes.
However, serious challenges remain, and these can only be overcome with political commitment,
flexibility, and visionary dedication. In my view, reaching the inter-state agreement is a good basis
for the normalisation of relations
and mutual acceptance by both
countries, but it should serve also as a basis for reconciliation and
recognition. In only the past five
months, Prime Minster’s Thaci
and Dacic have meet fifteen times
in Brussels. This is thanks to the
excellent mediation of Baroness
Ashton on behalf of the European
Union. In line with the provisions
of the Implementation Plan, the
main issues discussed in these
meetings were: dismantling Serb
Kosovo Foreign Minister, Enver Hoxhaj: Kosovo clearly holds both a European agenda and also stands for all principles of the
European Union such as free movement of goods, people, ideas, and friendly neighborly relations.
illegal and parallel security and
justice structures; the formation
of the Serb municipalities association; the organisation of local elections; and discussions on energy
and telecoms. I can confirm today
there has been some progress on
the integration of the police, the establishment of the association and
the finalising of preparations for
the local elections. On June 26, the
Assembly of Kosovo ratified the inter-state agreement between Kosovo and Serbia with more than twothirds majority of 84 votes, which
included the support of the opposition. These legislative changes will
facilitate the implementation of the
Agreement, and will enable Kosovo’s institutions to extend their democratic and legal authority in the
northern municipalities. Kosovo’s
government is determined to implement the conclusions that came
from these talks. We are also ready
to engage in further dialogue that
should aim to normalise relations
between the two countries.
After a long society-wide debate, on July 11, the Assembly
of Kosovo approved a law on
amnesty. The law aims to facilitate
the integration of the former employees of Serb parallel structures
into Kosovo’s institutional system.
The amnesty law has created some
political reaction from a faction of
the opposition in Kosovo. Therefore, the law is currently under
the review of our Constitutional
Court. As a democratic country
we fully respect the independence
of justice system. However, we remain hopeful that the court will
confirm that the amnesty law is in
accordance with our Constitution.
In accordance with the Normalisation Agreement and the Im-
plementation Plan, we have had
a breakthrough regarding the establishment of the Association of
Serb municipalities. Another area
of progress is the integration of former Serb police into Kosovo’s law
enforcement institutions.
In the area of justice there is no
progress yet on the implementation of provisions and this is due
to lack of political will in Belgrade.
On integrated border management, some progress is noted in
finalising the construction of five
permanent joint border points,
which will also set the inter-state
borderline between Kosovo and
Serbia. However, there are still
obstacles from Belgrade, who will
not allow Kosovo’s citizens to travel through Serbia with Kosovo
documents. Also, Kosovo has now
obtained a unique country code
and reached a deal with Serbia on
energy issues. Over the past three
months, Kosovo has strengthened
its international position and increased its interaction with multilateral organisations. Just in June
2013, we welcomed the recognition
of our independence by countries
such as: Egypt, Tanzania, Yemen,
Guyana, El Salvador, Papua New
Guinea, Burundi, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Saint Kitts, and Dominica. After membership in IMF, World
Bank, EBRD, we recently became
a member of the Council of Europe
Development Bank (CEB) and the
Regional Cooperation Council
(RCC). On 9 July, the North Atlantic Council announced that the Kosovo Security Force reached operational capability, in line with NATO standards and principles. As a
multi-ethnic force and a source of
stability, the Kosovo Security Force
has now strengthened its capaci-
ties for dealing with disaster management and humanitarian assistance. This marks an important moment in the widening of
relations between Kosovo and NATO. It also confirms that Kosovo is
as an example of civilian democratic oversight of the security sector.
I can always say proudly that
Kosovo citizens of all ethnicities
have actually created a stable and
civic state with a growing economy
in midst of the global economic crisis that hit the region so hard.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Republic of Kosovo has a dedicated staff that has made admirable progress working with international experts and dignitaries
to further our shared goals. Kosovo continues to meet the world where it can with strong public and digital diplomacy, utilising conferences and technology,
such as Instagram, to work with
the people who make democracy
so successful. This praiseworthy
work led to twelve new recognitions in 2012. We have 21 embassies
and 15 consular missions around
the world which seek to further
Kosovo’s ability to augment the
efforts of the international community as a strong contributing
member.
In June of this year, Kosovo
marked a milestone on its path to
EU membership. On June 28, the
Council of the European Union
took a decision to authorise the
Commission to negotiate a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and
Kosovo. This decision represents
an acknowledgement of our progress regarding both democratic
governance and the normalisation
of relations with Serbia. It opens,
for the first time, a clear perspective for establishing contractual
relations between the Republic
of Kosovo and the EU. By signing
an SAA, Kosovo will undergo the
same processes as all other states
in the region before joining the European Union. It has been encouraging to see the reforms carried
out by other aspiring members
supported through EU funds for
reform and development.
We remain trustful that the
SAA will contain all the elements
necessary to enable Kosovo to
achieve the conditions to submit an
application for membership. This
will offer a strategic framework for
social, economic, and political modernisation and transformation. It
represents a legal framework that
offers stability and security for foreign direct investments, economic growth, and job creation.
We have already formed a negotiating team and begun the preparations for negotiating the provisions of the SAA. Based on the
commitment of the EU, we expect
to finalise the agreement during
the Spring of 2014. Let me reiterate
that Kosovo’s European integration remains a national priority for
all political forces in the country.
Regarding visa liberalisation, we
have approved a package of laws
that regulate a number of critical
security-related issues, such as
the status of foreigners, asylum,
citizenship, the prevention of
trafficking, and integrated border
management. This package of laws
has now also been passed by the
Assembly of Kosovo. The Republic
of Kosovo has a legitimate, democratic government that meets the
highest international standards
and provides freedom and security for its people.
Kosovo’s efforts to work with
the international community stem
from our great success in strengthening community rights, economic development, and rule of
law. Many World Reports mark
this improvement, such as the
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions index. The
World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report increased Kosovo’s rank by 28
from 126 to 96 in only one year. Kosovo’s growth rate was steady even
as the world sees major economic
turmoil.
As a state, Kosovo clearly hold
both a European agenda and also
stand for all the European Union
upholds such as free movement of
goods, people, ideas, and friendly
neighborly relations.
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
7
sep t/oct 2013
Europe
Kosovo and Serbia reach a landmark deal. EU insists on
normalisation of relations between the two countries
The Republic of Kosovo gives significant priority to compliance with the content
and the spirit of the EU agreement
The dialogue between Kosovo
and Serbia is now focused on the
implementation of the EU agreement between the two countries. This follows the historic EU
Agreement reached on April 19
in Brussels between the Prime
Ministers of Kosovo and Serbia,
and brokered by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The EU as well as principle
stakeholders such as the US,
Germany and the UK are insisting that both countries must
now implement the agreement to
disband the parallel structures,
in order for Prishtina and Belgrade to advance in their separate EU integrations.Kosovo is
committed in its efforts to reach
an agreement on the implementation plan and commence actual
implementation as soon as possible.
The Republic of Kosovo gives
significant priority to compliance
with the content and the spirit of
the EU Agreement. Once the implementation plan is signed, with
concrete implementation on the
ground can begin. This includes
working through domestic institutions, as well as EULEX and
KFOR, and with the active participation of the Serbian community living in Kosovo. The Kosovo
government is hopeful that the
government of Serbia will assume its obligations for the implementation of the agreement
and demonstrate that it takes this
process seriously. Successful implementation is in the interests
of both countries, as well as the
wider region. The head of the
Kosovo Delegation Hajredin Kuçi emphasised the commitment
towards this, saying: “The delegation of the Republic of Kosovo
appreciates the role of the European Union and our international partners, the United States
and NATO in supporting the implementation of the agreement.”
The agreement also came
about as a result of the advisory opinion of the International
Court of Justice. This stipulated
that Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008
was not illegal under international law, and came in response to
a complaint from Serbia that the
actions had violated its territorial integrity. Key elements of the
Agreement had Belgrade giving
up its parallel institutions in Kosovo, especially in the north, in
return for receiving protections
for the Serbs proposed in the
Ahtisaari plan. In addition, Belgrade agreed not to block Prish-
Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi shakes hands with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić
tina’s progress toward EU (and
international) acceptance. An
implementation committee with
EU participation is to be established.
Initial agreements were achieved on:
• Freedom of movement
across the administrative border
for persons and cars;
• Belgrade giving Prishtina co-
pies of land registries and documents on births, deaths and marriages in Kosovo;
• Mutual recognition of university degrees;
• Belgrade acceptance of Kosovo custom stamps saying «Customs of Kosovo»;
• End of trade embargoes, allowing trade between Serbia and
Kosovo;
• Integrated operations at
crossing points in north Kosovo;
• Representation of Prishtina
at regional organisations;
•Liaison officers exchanged
between Belgrade and Prishtina
stationed in EU missions.
This September, Kosovo obtained a unique country code and
reached a deal with Serbia on energy issues.
Kosovo Interfaith Conference brings faith and community leaders from
around the world together to build mutual understanding
Nearly 200 participants from
around the region and the world
gathered to take part in discussions on how to enhance dialogue
and understanding between religious communities. This came as
part of the Interfaith Conference
which took place this May in Peja/Pec, Kosovo. This conference
was recognised as an important
landmark for the global interfaith
community: there were participants from countries as far and
wide as the UK, the US, Georgia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and
Qatar. Opening the proceedings,
Kosovo Deputy Foreign Minister Petrit Selimi thanked the participants for coming to Kosovo.
He expressed his hope that the
outcome of this important conference would be captured in the
«Peja Principles», a set of com-
mitments recording the discussions from the conference. A
lively panel discussion on the
issue of «old media, social media and interfaith relations» was
chaired by Noori Bibi, director of
the organisation Young Muslim
Voices in the UK. It considered
how developments in media and
technology can assist in helpful
dialogue, and how it can also be a
barrier when used by extremists
and religious fundamentalists.
Panelists included Rabbi Joshua
Stanton, Associate Director of
the Center for Global Judaism at
the Hebrew College in the US,
who said: «Social media is here
to stay, the question in my mind
is what we do?» He also talked
about how he has used social media effectively in his own work
to create online communities.
Other panelists included Stephen
Suleyman Schwartz, a columnist
at the widely read website Huffington Post; Rizwan Hussain,
founder of the British organisation Jawaab which works with
Pakistani youth; Omer Karabeg,
Editor of Radio Free Europe; and
Dr Anna Di Lellio, who currently
teaches at the New School in New
York City.
Themes raised during the
discussion included how realtime information overload can
distort accuracy and the role of
individuals. Participants raised
concerns that some internet forums have become a platform for
disinformation and hate speech
as individuals were able to hide
behind their computer screens.
However, the power of social media means that it is important for
religious and community leaders
to engage with online communities to ensure that there is a positive discussion. Following lunchtime speeches from imam Sabri
Bajgora of the Kosovo Islamic
Community and Bishop Andrej
of the Serbian Orthodox Church,
participants went on a tour of Peja/Pec. They visited historic and
religious sites including the Ethnological Museum, the Old Bazaar, Bajrakli Mosque and the Pec
Patriachate.
Kosovo Interfaith Conference participants visit Pec Patriachate
8
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
European
“THE PATH
TOWARDS
THE EU”
The theme and process of European integration has become the strategic objective for the Western Balkans as the region
enacts the internal reforms necessary for
the establishment of sustainable democracy. This is especially true for Kosovo
as a new state: working towards the fulfilment of the criteria will greatly benefit
its citizens. Every country in the region
aspires towards EU integration, not only
for the act itself, but also for the benefits
for their economy and citizens, and the
increased peace and security for the region. In the past year Kosovo has made
a lot of progress. An important step was
made towards EU integration in October
2012, when the European Commission
issued a feasibility study for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)
between the European Union and Kosovo. The study concluded that Kosovo
was largely ready to open negotiations
and underlined the readiness of the Commission to implement such an agreement
once Kosovo takes specific steps in meeting some short-term benchmarks in issues such as rule of law, public administration, the protection of minorities and
trade. Two months later, in December
2012, the European Council took note of
both the feasibility study and the Commission’s intention to propose negotiating directives for a SAA.
The Council called on Kosovo to continue implementing all agreements in the
framework of the EU-mediated dialogue
with Serbia and to engage constructively
with the full range of issues. Even more,
it underlined the importance of Kosovo strengthening its cooperation with
EULEX and respecting the renewed
mandate of the mission. It also welcomed
the Commission’s on-going efforts to negotiate a framework agreement with Kosovo concerning its participation in EU
programmes. The Council also noted Kosovo’s membership of the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development and
the possibility for the European Investment Bank to enhance its role in Kosovo. Taking these elements into consideration, in April 2013, the Commission
adopted joint report, with the European
Parliament and the Council, on Kosovo’s
progress in addressing issues set out in
the December 2012 Council Conclusions.
This report confirmed that Kosovo had
met all the short-term benchmarks for
the opening of SAA negotiations with
Kosovo. Furthermore, it confirmed that
Kosovo had taken very significant steps
towards visible and sustainable improvements in its relations with Serbia. In
this light, the report confirmed the intention of the Commission to submit its
proposal for a Council decision authorising the opening of negotiations for a
SAA between the European Union and
Kosovo. This proposal was subsequently
accepted by the EU Heads of States and
Governments. This represents the first
official step towards the establishment
of contractual relations between the EU
and Kosovo, with a formalised promise
of Kosovo’s future accession to the EU.
The Government of the Republic of
Kosovo appointed an official delegation
for the negotiation of the SAA. The Minister of European Integration is chief
negotiator and the delegation consists of
the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Trade
and Industry, Agriculture, Forestry and
Rural Development, Finance, Economic
Development and Justice.
Other Ministers and representatives
of institutions will be invited as needed
by specific agenda items. The team will
be responsible for leading the negotiations on a political level and setting up
a clear framework for the development
of technical negotiations. Kosovar institutions and the European Commission
have discussed the establishment of three
working groups: Trade, Legal Approximation, and Cooperation Policies. The
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry,
Mr Bernard Nikaj, has been appointed
as negotiator on trade issues, while the
Deputy Minister of European Integration, Mr Gëzim Kasapolli, is taking the
lead on legal approximation and cooperation policies issues. It is expected that the
European Commission will send the first
draft of the SAA to Kosovo institutions
in late September or early October 2013.
This will enable the first negotiations of
the SAA to take place in late October or
early November 2013.
The official visa liberalisation dialogue
started in January 2012, and on the 14th
of June the first Senior Officials’ Meeting
(SOM) between the government of Kosovo and the European Commission took
place. In this meeting Kosovo received
Kosovo Minister of Integration, Vlora Çitaku: Represents the first official step towards the
establishment of contractual relations between the EU and Kosovo, with a formalised promise
of Kosovo’s future accession to the EU.
the EU’s roadmap towards a visa-free
regime with Kosovo. Following this, in
September 2012, Kosovo submitted to the
Commission the first readiness report
and their comprehensive assessment on
the approximation of the domestic legislation with the EU acquis. The former
provided a comprehensive overview of
Kosovo’s achievements to date in implementing each of the visa liberalisation
roadmap criterion. The latter provided a
comprehensive, detailed assessment of
approximation of such legislation within
the relevant EU acquis.
Furthermore, in October 2012, an EU
fact-finding mission visit took place. It
consisted of experts from the Commission and Member States, and assessed
the implementation of the roadmap. The
findings of this mission were included in
the first EU report on the implementation
of the roadmap, which was issued by the
EU in February 2013. This report complemented the Roadmap with a number
of recommendations. While implementation of the roadmap criteria was under
way, and in order to better plan activities
and measures, Kosovo developed its Action Plan on the Implementation of the
Visa Liberalisation Roadmap, which was
adopted in April 2013. Since June 2012,
Kosovo has implemented and met the majority of these criteria and recommendations. Having outlined all of the above,
we can say that one thing is for sure: the
Kosovan government’s main concern is
undertaking the required reforms to be
in line with the other Western Balkan
countries terms of European integration.
We have progressed a lot in the past year,
with some of the steps being very delicate and complex. The process of the dialogue for the normalisation of relations
between Kosovo and Serbia has involved several meetings and hours of work.
The implementation of the agreements
reached between the two Prime Ministers
is of utmost interest for both parties. We
need to believe in what we are doing: we
must create as much support as possible
with our own people for the necessity of
closing the chapter of pain between Kosovo and Serbia, and instil the desire for a
clean slate of relations based on Copenhagen criteria of good neighbourly rapports.
We are very happy to see all our
neighbours advancing their way for a
final inclusion into the EU. However,
Kosovo has remained in a deadlock due
to several factors. We have a specific relationship with the EU: for Kosovo it has
become more of a political issue than for
the other countries, and it’s taking its toll.
The passing grade for us has to be an A+
and any other grade is not acceptable. In
one sense this seems unfair – that double
standards are being applied when it comes to Kosovo – but in another sense it
helps us to be prepared for all issues and
tasks at hand.
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
9
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo
End of “supervised”
independence:
Kosovo gains full
sovereignty
The International Steering Group (ISG),
which was an organisation formed in accordance to the Ahtisaari Plan concerning Kosovo’s status process, has announced the end of the supervision of
Kosovo. Since it’s 2008 declaration of
independence from Serbia, Kosovo was
overseen by 23 European Union countries, along with the United States and
Turkey. Distinguished personalities
such as foreign ministers from Albania and Ghana, and high-level guests
from around the globe, participated in a
series of events. This included a conference with the title “Closed chapter in the
Balkans” hosted by the Prime Minister
of the Republic Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi,
Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj, and the
International Civilian Representative in
Kosovo, Pieter Feith. This conference was
held after the ISG’s decision to remove the
international supervision of Kosovo’s
independence. Among the participants
were President Martti Ahtisaari, EU
Commissioner Stefan Fule, Vice-Chan-
cellor of Austria Michael Spindelegger,
Ghanian Foreign Minister Mumini, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hamada, U. S. special envoy to Kosovo Frank
Wisner, and former envoy of the European Union, Wolfgang Ischinger.
American President Barack Obama
has hailed the end of international supervision of Kosovo’s independence as a
“historic milestone”. While former American President Bill Clinton, addressing
the conference via video link, said that
the end of supervised independence is a
key step and a tremendous opportunity
to determine Kosovo’s role in the region,
Europe and the world. Pieter Faith, stated
in a press conference: “The supervision
of Kosovo is finished.
The International Steering Group has
decided to end the period of Kosovo’s supervised independence”. Ahtisaari formerly served as the European Union’s
Special Representative (EUSR) and as
the International Civilian Representative
in Kosovo. President Martti Ahtisaari
stated that “The institutions and values
that have begun to develop over the last
four years must now be applied. Kosovo
must start to act as the independent, sovereign state it has become - not only with
the status and dignity of such a state, but
with the maturity and responsibility that
statehood implies”.
The President of the Republic of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga said that the conclusion
of Kosovo’s supervised independence is
an important and historic moment for
Kosovo: “This is an achievement of the
citizens, institutions of Kosovo and international factors that always stood by
Kosovo in the path of state building,” said
Jahjaga, adding that Kosovo is ready to
take on all responsibilities to continue
strengthening of the state and democracy.
The Prime Minister of the Republic
of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, declared that:
“the international community gave full
support to the Kosovo Institutions for
the conclusion of supervised independence. This is a historical and important
moment for the state of Kosovo, which is
being reinforced each day”.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, said
that “the Kosovo case has proven that the
process of state building and institutions
together with political transition, transformation and consolidation are three
different but interrelated aspects of a
comprehensive process of democratisation. The Republic of Kosovo represents a
clear example of a state built based on the
political will of the majority of its people”.
Kosovo must act as an independent state, with the
maturity and responsibility that statehood implies
Excerpt from key-note speech by President Martti Ahtisaari to Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Conference
‘Chapter Closed in the Balkans’. Kosovo
does not choose the EU, yes or no. Kosovo’s choice is between on the one hand
a passive, backward-looking failure to
come to terms with its own relationship
with the EU, and on the other hand a dynamic, forward-looking engagement with
the Union - with all of the challenges and
demands that that brings. Kosovo cannot
change the fact that it has a relationship
with the EU; but it can change the tone,
and the meaning, and the strength of
that relationship. The granting of full
sovereignty to Kosovo is a clear sign of
confidence in Kosovo’s institutions, leaders and people. Excerpt from speech by
Austrian Vice-Chancellor Michael Spindelegger to Kosovo’s Assembly ahead of
the MFA Conference ‘Chapter Closed in
the Balkans’. A transitional period has
ended for Kosovo and a new era starts in
earnest, your path towards the EU. Some
day in the not so distant future it will be
Kosovo herself transferring in turn some
of her regained sovereignty to a supranational authority. The granting of full
sovereignty to Kosovo is a clear sign of
confidence in Kosovo’s institutions, leaders and people.
Quotes from
"Chapter Closed
in the Balkans"
Attendees:
U. S. President Barack Obama hailed the end of
international supervision of Kosovo’s independenceas a “historic milestone”.
The former U. S. President Bill Clinton,
addressing the conference via video link, said
"the end of supervision of independence is
a key step and a tremendous opportunity to
determine your role in the region, in Europe
and in the world."
Pieter Faith, former European Union
Special Representative (EUSR) and International Civilian Representative in Kosovo said
that “The supervision of Kosovo is finished.
The International Steering Group has decided
to end the period of Kosovo’s supervised
independence”.
President Martti Ahtisaari stated: “The
granting of full sovereignty to Kosovo is a clear
sign of confidence in Kosovo’s institutions,
leaders and people.
The institutions and values that have begun
to develop over the last four years must now
be applied. Kosovo must start to act as the
independent, sovereign state it has become not only with the status and dignity of such a
state, but with the maturity and responsibility
that statehood implies”.
The President of the Republic of Kosovo,
Atifete Jahjaga, said that the conclusion of
Kosovo’s supervised independence is an
important and historic moment for Kosovo:
“This is an achievement of the citizens, institutions of Kosovo and international factors that
always stood by Kosovo in the path of state
building,” said Jahjaga, adding that Kosovo is
ready to take on all responsibilities to continue
strengthening of the state and democracy.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of
Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, declared that “the
international community gave full support to
the Kosovo institutions for the conclusion of
supervised independence.
This is a historical and important moment
for the state of Kosovo, which is being reinforced each day”.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, said that
“the Kosovo case has proven that the process
of state building and institutions together with
political transition, transformation and consolidation are three different but interrelated
aspects of a comprehensive process of democratisation. The Republic of Kosovo represents
a clear example of a state built based on the
political will of the majority of its people”.
10
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Kosovo
The Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Prime Minister of Serbia signed the agreement facilitated by EU Foreign Policy Chief Baroness Ashton.
Kosovo welcomes the decision of the EC
to launch the negotiations for the SAA
The decision presents the first official step on Kosovo’s path towards European Union membership
The Government of the Repub¬lic
of Kosovo welcomes the deci¬sion
of the European Council to launch
negotiations for a Stabi¬lisation
and Association Agree¬ment
(SAA) between the Repub¬lic of
Kosovo and the European Union.
The decision presents the first official step on our path to¬wards
European Union member¬ship.
The SAA is the first contractual agreement between the
Repub¬lic of Kosovo and the European Union that provides a
clear per¬spective towards Kosovo’s full member-ship to the EU,
as well this is the most advanced
form of as¬sociation that a potential candi¬date country may
have with the European Union.
The Agree¬ment provides a strategic frame¬work for the overall social, politi¬cal and economic development of aspiring country for EU member¬ship. This
agreement also pres¬ents a legal
framework which pro¬vides stability and assurance for investors,
which in turn creates a sound basis for foreign direct in¬vestment
and will lead to job gen¬eration.
The launch of ne¬gotiations between the Republic of Kosovo and
European Union firmly anchors
the integration pro¬cess of Kosovo as well fur¬ther consolidating
the interna¬tional legal status of
our state. The SAA takes Kosovo
a step closer to achieving status
of can¬didate country, which will
enable the creation of a broader
framework for financial assistance
benefits from the EU. This decision
to open the SAA negotiations is to
the merit of the all the institutions
of the Re¬public of Kosovo and the
entire politi¬cal spectrum. It also
confirms the progress of political,
econom¬ic and legal reform undertaken in the Republic of Kosovo.
Kosovo becomes a sovereign member of Council of Europe Bank
Prishtina, 15 June 2013 – The
Republic of Kosovo has become a
member of the Council of Eu¬rope
Development Bank (CEB). The decision was taken on Jnne 15th, at
a meeting of the Board of Directors of the CEB in Malta. 31 out of
the 39 mem¬bers voted to accept
the applica¬tion of the Republic
of Kosovo for full membership in
this institu¬tion, an autonomous
branch of the Council of Europe
(CoE). The Deputy Minister of
Foreign Af¬fairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Petrit Selimi, in a
press confer¬ence, revealed details
about the great importance of the
mem¬bership of the Republic of
Kosovo in to this financial institution. According to Selimi, Kosovo
may benefit up to 30 or to 40 million euros per a year from their
membership to this bank, which is
also the largest organi¬sation after
the EBRD, who have already accepted Kosovo with full rights. He
said that Kosovo will benefit mainly in social projects. “It is expect¬ed
that 30 to 40 million euros per
year will be ready in very affordable loans intended for social projects dealing with the strengthening of social equality and projects
on displaced per-sons, homes for
the destitute citizens,” Selimi said,
adding that these projects will be
main¬ly aimed at the strengthening of the social component. Selimi also said that membership to
in the bank has been a priority of
the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Enver Hoxhaj, and is the re¬sult
Kosovo became the new sovereign
member of the CoE Bank, which will
further support projects of social
inclusion
of a long work of partner¬ing
ministries. Membership in the
Council of Europe Develop¬ment
Bank, which comes just days after the recognition of Kosovo by
some several coun¬tries, is a great
success for the Foreign Ministry
at this stage of the strengthening
of the in¬ternational subjectivity of the Republic of Kosovo, as
well as Kosovo’s interaction in the
mul¬tilateral organizations.
Kosovo becomes full-fledged participant of Regional Cooperation Council
A meeting of the Board of the
Re¬gional Cooperation Council
(RCC) was held today in Sarajevo. RCC, the main umbrella organisation of regional cooperation in
South¬eastern Europe, numbering
46 members, welcomed Kosovo, by
a unanimous decision, as a new participant with full powers in this body,
which is considered as the main instrument of the EU pre-accession
and regional coop-eration. Kosovo
was represented by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kosovo, Petrit Selimi.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj, called today’s
decision historic as it opens doors for
the member¬ship of Kosovo to dozens of initiatives and funds, while the
participation of Kosovo is equal and
without discrimination vis-à-vis all
participating countries. Kosovo’s participation was previously lim¬ited by
UNMIK, and even after the Regional
Representation Agreement last year
between Kosovo and Serbia, there
were attempts of resistance to Kosovo’s full participation in the RCC by
claims of technical obsta¬cles.
Today’s decision of the Board
changed the statute of the organisation and its found¬ing declaration by
withdrawing UN¬MIK’s reference.
Kosovo now will have the vote and
will be an inde¬pendent participant.
Today’s de¬cision was welcomed by
Kosovo becomes a sovereign member of EBRD
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo announced that
proce¬dures for the membership
of the Republic of Kosovo in the
Europe¬an Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
are now complete and that Kosovo won majority votes for its inclusion to this important international in-stitution. During a press
conference, Deputy Minister Selimi said that Kosovo’s membership in this insti¬tution is a great
victory of Kos¬ovar diplomacy
and economy.“Firstly, Kosovo’s
membership in the EBRD is of a
great diplomat¬ic and political importance, as it is a result of a long
struggle of Koso¬vo with partner countries and the EBRD itself
to acquire a sufficient number of
votes, given the voting system in
the EBRD, which re¬quires the obtainment of a two-thirds vote.” In
this context, he also not¬ed there
was a very long effort by the Prime
Minister Thaci, Minis¬ter Hoxhaj,
Minister of Finance Hamza and
the Minister of Europe¬an Integration, “who for several months have
been engaged to col¬lect the votes
one by one to acquire the necessary number for member¬ship into the EBRD”.The EBRD is a bank
which was established to help
compa¬nies and countries in tran-
sition, has investment capital of
10 billion euros annually. With its
membership, Kosovo, will benefit
from bilateral aid and low interest
loans for various business¬es and
initiatives. Prime Minister Thaci
has also scheduled for next week a
meeting with the Economic Council and state actors involved in the
economy. Partici¬pants will discuss the modalities of establishing
the body which will help businesses in developing seri¬ous projects
and forms and differ¬ent methodologies that will enable the entry of
capital and liquidity of the EBRD
in the Kosovar economy and enterprises as well as in vari¬ous banks.
countries like the United States, Turkey, Al¬bania, Sweden, representatives of the EU, and so forth. Deputy
Minister Petrit Selimi thanked RCC’s
new director, Go¬ran Svilanovic, and
all the countries which unanimously
supported to¬day’s decision stating
that Kosovo’s regional cooperation
and inter-neighbourly relations are
a prior¬ity for the people and government of Kosovo on the path towards
Eu¬ropean integration. Participation
in RCC opens up new opportuni¬ties
of membership and coopera¬tion in
various fields. The Deputy Min¬ister
during his official visit to Sara¬jevo
met with, amongst others, Stefano
Sannino, the Director-General for
Enlargement at the European Commission, Go¬ran Svilanovic, director of the RCC and diplomats from
Albania and Tur¬key. The RCC was
founded after the Thessaloniki Summit, and, along with the IPA Fund of
the EU, it is considered as a means
of pre-ac¬cession and the umbrella
organi¬sation of many regional initiatives. Kosovo’s Petrit Halilaj at
the Venice Biennale Kosovo marked
its first official participation at the
Venice Bien¬nale with Petrit Halilaj’s instal¬lations. Halilaj’s work
consisted of intertwining branches,
twigs and rods that transform the
ex¬hibition space into an anomalous
spectacle, directly inverting visi¬tors’
expectations of contempo¬rary art
within a gallery setting. Taking up
almost two-thirds of the space was
a gargantuan structure that is detached from the ground, recalling
images of some kind of primordial
shelter or spacecraft from the future.
The earthy scent of the installa¬tion
further intensified the sen¬sation of
being within a tranquil inner realm.
Halilaj introduced a perso¬nal
touch to his work by allowing two
of his canaries to live within the installation itself, provoking the viewer to contemplate the notion of art as
habitat.
As with previous projects, Halilaj pre¬pared for this installation
by en¬listing the involvement of his
fa¬mily, friends and other people
close to him. Inspired by his mother’s suggestion to create a structure
within a structure, the artist amalgamated the collec¬tive experiences
of his contribu¬tors to form multiple
narratives on the recent, painful history of his country. At the same time,
his project is reminiscent of a desire to
restore the fragile pu¬rity of nature to
the world we re¬side in. The Kosovo
Pavilion will be at the Venice Biennale
until 24 November.
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
11
sep t/oct 2013
Cultural Diplomacy
Petrit Halilaj, Kostërrc (CH), 2011. Sixty tons of Kosovo’s soil transported to Basel, Switzerland. Courtesy the artist and Chert, Berlin.
Kosovo marks its debut with a Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
“Being invited to contribute
to the realisation of Kosovo’s
first appearance at the Venice
Biennale is a great privilege
for me, all the more so, due
to the symbolic significance
attached to the decision that
Kosovo be represented at
the Venice Biennale for the
very first time. The invitation
comes with a high degree of
responsibility, which I would
have been more anxious about,
were it not for the artist Petrit
Halilaj, who has been chosen
to represent Kosovo in Venice
this year.
Petrit Halilaj’s artistic
practice is deeply rooted in a
constant search of what reality
is and how reality might be
represented through art. His
memories of a rural childhood,
his personal experience of
war, destruction, exodus and
displacement are the very
basis of his reflections on life
and the human condition. The
artist moves back and forth
between different countries,
between Kosovo, where he
Petrit Halilaj
Kosovo Pavilion at the 55th
Venice Biennale of Art
grew up and where his family
and many friends are; Italy,
where he studied; and Berlin,
where he temporarily lives.
This transnational way of life
not only adds to his experience
but is also representative of
Petrit Halilaj’s specific way of
exploring art and reality, and
of his continuing attempts to
translate or even transform
the one into the other. His art
can be seen as building bridges
between different worlds and
realities, ideologies, different
generations and phases of life.
Petrit Halilaj’s art is unique,
but this kind of transnational existence and experience
that is at the core of his work,
is not. On the contrary, to a
varying extent it is an increasingly contemporary reality of
everyone’s life and thus all the
more radical, a starting point
for Kosovo’s first appearance
at the Venice Biennale.
Deputy Foreign Minister of
the Republic of Kosovo, Petrit
Selimi, will be among the
attendees of the Biennale.
—Kathrin Rhomberg
Petrit Halilaj was born in
1986 in Kostërrc (Kosovo).
He lives and works between
Kosovo, Berlin and Bozzolo,
Italy. Recent solo exhibitions
include Who does the earth
belong to while painting the
wind?!, Kunst Halle Sankt
Gallen, St. Gallen (2012); Art
Basel Statements with Chert,
Berlin (2011); Kunstraum
Innsbruck, Innsbruck (2011);
Back to the Future, Stacion,
Prishtina (2009); and Petrit
Halilaj solo exhibition, Chert,
Berlin (2009). Recent group
exhibitions include SUPER
Visions – Zeichnen und Sein,
Museum Schloss Moyland
(2013); New Public, Museion,
Bolzano (2012); 30 Künstler 30 Räume, Kunstverein
Follow us on
Twitter @MFAKosovo
Nürnberg, Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft (2012); Temoraneao,
Nomas Foundation, Rome
(2011); Ernste Tiere, Bonner
Kunstverein, Bonn (2011);
Ostalgia, New Museum, New
York (2011); STRUKTUR &
ORGANISMUS, Marillenhof
– DestillerieKausl, Österreich
(2011); Maladresses ou La Figure de l’idiot, the Institute of
Social Hypocrisy, Paris (2010);
Based in Berlin, Atelierhaus
Monbijoupark, Berlin (2011);
and 6th Berlin Biennale for
Contemporary Art, Berlin
(2010). Upcoming solo exhibitions are in program at Wiels,
Brussels (2013); National
Gallery of Kosovo (2013); and
Museum Fridericianum, Kassel (2014).
The Kosovo entry in the
Venice Biennale is made possible thanks to the Ministry of
Culture, Youth and Sports of
the Republic of Kosovo (www.
mkrs-ks.org).
Official Kosovo Pavillion website coming soon: www.kosovopavilion.com
12
SEP T/OCT 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Photo Collage
Cultural
Diplomacy
Kosovo’s Petrit Halilaj at the Venice Biennale
Kosovo marked its first official
participation at the Venice Biennale with Petrit Halilaj’s installations. Halilaj’s work consisted
of intertwining branches, twigs
and rods that transform the exhibition space into an anomalous
spectacle, directly inverting visitors’ expectations of contemporary art within a gallery setting.
Taking up almost two-thirds
of the space was a gargantuan
structure that is detached from
the ground, recalling images of
some kind of primordial shelter
or spacecraft from the future.
The earthy scent of the installation further intensified the sensation of being within a tranquil
inner realm.
Halilaj introduced a personal touch to his work by allowing
two of his canaries to live within
the installation itself, provoking
the viewer to contemplate the
notion of art as habitat. As with
previous projects, Halilaj prepared for this installation by enlisting the involvement of his family, friends and other people
close to him. Inspired by his
mother’s suggestion to create a
Exhibition of Kosovo's young artist, Petrit Halilaj, at the Venice Biennale
structure within a structure, the
artist amalgamated the collective experiences of his contributors to form multiple narratives
on the recent, painful history of
his country. At the same time,
his project is reminiscent of a
desire to restore the fragile pu-
rity of nature to the world we reside in. The Kosovo Pavilion will
be at the Venice Biennale until 24
November.
Nathan Coley's Kosovan sculpture: a beacon in bulbs
Charlotte Higgins, excerpt from The Guardian
Nathan Coley was listening to
Radio 4 when he heard a phrase.
The next moment, he was darting up and down his Glasgow
flat looking for a pen and paper
so he could write it down. The
date was 11 September 2011, and
the station was broadcasting the
memories of people who had
been caught up in the 9/11 New
York attacks. Coley, who was
shortlisted for the 2007 Turner
Prize, tells me this a year to the
day afterwards, as we sit on the
steps of the university library of Pristina, a glorious piece
of Soviet architecture. Across
the park – between the new
government education offices,
the Kosovo Art Gallery, and the
half-built, half-ruined Orthodox
church raised by Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s – the phrase
that so struck Coley is writ
large, picked out in lightbulbs
and mounted on a scaffolding
frame seven metres tall: «A
PLACE BEYOND BELIEF.» It
is the latest in a series of foundtext sculptures by 43-year-old
Coley. Placed here, the phrase
loses its original context and
goes out into the world to find
a new life. The setting is midway between reconstruction
and ruin: students hurry past
between lectures, and newly
planted trees grow in spite of the
drought. At the same time, the
church – a symbol of Serbian oppression to the majority Muslim,
ethnic Albanian population – is
gradually decaying, weeds filling its cracked brickwork. Tim
Judah, a writer and Balkans expert, remembers the church in
the immediate aftermath of the
1999 Nato bombing campaign
against the Serbians. Inside the
shell of the empty building, British troops were encamped «to
stop it being destroyed. Of all
Installation of British artist Nathan Coley's work in Prishtina
the things I saw at that time, it
was perhaps the most surreal:
soldiers watching EastEnders,
the Sun on a coffee table – a sort
of British living room, in a tent
inside this ruin.»
Coley’s A Place Beyond Belief officially opened earlier this
month (in September, 2013), in
the presence of diplomats and
politicians including Martti
Ahtisaari, the Finnish ex-president and Nobel laureate who
drew up Kosovo’s independence plan. These were «the
black cars and the grey suits»,
as Coley puts it, who gathered
in the capital to mark another
step on Kosovo’s road to mature
nation-statehood: the end of
supervised independence, the
system by which, since 2008,
Kosovo’s political institutions
have been overseen. This is appropriate in a young country
that has its problems: a deeply
fragile relationship with Serbia;
unanswered questions about the
future of its minority Serbian
population; corruption and organised crime. The idea of placing Coley’s sculpture here for a
month came from Petrit Selimi,
Kosovo’s deputy minister for foreign affairs.
At just 33, he is one of four
ministers in Kosovo’s government under 35; the president
herself is only 36. When, in
the early 1990s, Serbia banned
ethnic Albanians (about 90% of
the Kosovan population) from
holding state jobs, and closed
Albanian schools and its university, he and his peers were
educated by a sort of shadow
state, a parallel underground
system. Selimi was politicised
early: he made his debut aged
13, speaking at a youth conference in Vienna. He talks about
art with a fluency that is rare
in a British politician. «A Place
Beyond Belief is multivocal,» he
says, «it could even be read as
antagonistic. At the same time,
sited by the church that Milosevic started to build, it stands as a
testimony not to religious belief,
but the misuse of religious belief. It is also next to the library:
between a beacon of hope and
a beacon of destruction.» The
Kosovo Art Gallery, which organised the installation, is run by
Erzen Shkololli, another young
man educated in this parallel
system. «I was 11 when Milosevic came to power,» he says. «I
was of the generation who saw
the protests and watched Albanian soldiers returning from the
war. I’ve been the witness of so
many things that sometimes I
feel 66, not 36.» Until a year ago,
Shkololli was working in Berlin,
a successful artist whose work
had been shown internationally.
«But if you survive all this, if you
get through all these traumas, in
the end you want to be here, to
contribute here,» he says. His
role now is to try to nurture a
Kosovan art scene: bringing in
artists from outside, showing
their work alongside that of
Balkan artists. Coley’s work
represents a significant step
forward: recent bits of public
sculpture in Pristina include a
bronze of Bill Clinton who, in
the manner of social realist Soviet sculptures, waves benignly
in Bill Clinton Boulevard. It’s a
reminder of how much he (and
Tony Blair) are revered in Kosovo, thanks to the 1999 NATO
intervention:
Selimi says a surprising number of 13-year-old Kosovans are
named Tony Blair. Selimi sees
culture as a vital tool for nation-building, a way for Kosovo
to present a more mature face to
the world. «What do people outside know about Kosovo? They
think it’s still a war zone, they
think of refugees.[Norwegian
mass murderer] Anders Breivik mentioned it frequently as
a bridge for Islam into Europe.
We need to connect to a wider
world, and put our story into
a greater European and international narrative.» This is of
crucial importance to a nation
whose sovereignty is not recognised by five EU states, not to
mention major powers including China and Russia. Selimi
and Shkololli have a plan: they
want to persuade the government to buy a version of A Place
Beyond Belief, and to put it permanently on show in the Kosovo
parliament building. As a plea to
politicians of all stripes not to repeat the terrible mistakes of the
past, it’s hard to think of a more
eloquent message.
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
13
SEP T/OCT 2013
Photo Europe
Collage
Kosovo introduces visa
regime for 87 countries
On 1 July of this year, Kosovo launched a visa regime for 87 countries.
Application for Kosovo visa
-Foreign nationals MUST file in advance a request for appointment to the
General Consulate of Kosovo in Istanbul. The request should be done via
email address: [email protected]
- Foreign nationals MUST apply in
person.
- You cannot apply through the post.
Visa applicants should submit the
following documents:
- The original filled and signed application form. If applicant is minor,
the application form must be signed
by parents or legal custodian;
- Passport (valid at least three months after the visa expiration date with
at least two empty pages);
- One visa standardised photo
(35x45mm);
- Proof showing the purpose of visiting the Republic of Kosovo;
- Ticket reservation;
-Accommodation (Hotel reservation
or notarised letter of guarantee from
the host in Kosovo);
- Sufficient financial means to cover
the expenses of stay in Kosovo (Bank
account statement for the last three
months);
- Health insurance (for medical coverage of at least 30,000,00€);
- Visa fee.
REMARK:
-Border Police may refuse the entrance of foreign nationals in cases of
reasonable suspicions regarding their
documentations or reasons for entering the Republic of Kosovo.
Important information
- Depending on the purpose of visiting Kosovo, the Consular Officer may
require additional supporting documents;
- All supporting documents should
be translated in one of official languages of Kosovo (Albanian or Serbian) or in English;
- All documents should be submitted as photocopies as well;
- Holders of diplomatic/official
passports are exempted from the visa
fee and from the obligation of the presence at the moment of application in
the diplomatic and consular mission.
- The applicant to whom the visa is
refused can file a complaint within 8
calendar days to the respective consular mission.
VISA EXEMPTIONS
Foreign nationals, subject to the Law
on the Status, Immunities and Privileges of Diplomatic and Consular Missions and Personnel in Republic of Kosovo and of the International Military
Presence and its Personnel, as well as
foreign nationals, holders of UN Travel Documents, are exempted from the
obligation of visa possession.Foreign
citizens, subject to visa regime application, but bearers of valid multiple entry
Schengen visa may enter the Republic
of Kosovo and stay up to 15 days without
having to obtain a Kosovo visa.Starting
May 08, 2013, citizens of the EU member
states, except with a valid travel document, may enter, transit or stay for 90
days and leave the Republic of Kosovo
even with a valid Identification Card.
Kosovo visa fees for foreigners
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj has
taken a decision on the visa fees for
foreign consular missions of Republic of Kosovo. According to a press
release from the MFA, the decision
was made in accordance with the applicable laws, and envisages that the
fee will be applied according to visa
types.
According to the decision, visa
types and amounts that will be paid
for them are as follows: entry visa
(C) - 40 euro, transit visa (B) - 30 euro, transit visa (A) - 25 euro and long
-term visa (D) - 50 euro.
The Kosovo government had decided earlier to establish the visa regime for 87 countries in the frame
of the process of meeting the standards set by the European Union for
free movement of citizens to the EU
countries, according to the criteria
of the Schengen code, where some of
the conditions are the border management and illegal migration.
14
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Interfaith Initiative
Kosovo, a place of
tolerance, on its road to EU
In the five years since independence, the first and foremost
priority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo was the recognition of independence. Kosovo’s independence has now
been recognised by a record number of states and the country
has achieved many positive results. The country has also focused on obtaining recognition
of its sovereignty from the clusters of countries where Kosovo was not been present before.
Meetings were held with state
leaders from countries in North
Africa, including Tunisia, but also with some member states of
the Organization of the Islamic
Conference. With Pakistan recognising Kosovo’s statehood last
December, the path was opened
for Kosovo to lobby even harder in North Africa, especially
after the Arab Spring. As a result of the relentless commitment of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and other relevant institutions of the Government of
Kosovo, in just this June Kosovo
has been recognised by Tanzania, Yemen, Guyana, Egypt and
El Salvador. Besides our focus
on bilateral recognitions, we expanded in our interaction in the
multilateral world. Kosovo has
reached major achievements, including the membership in the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
where Kosovo obtained votes
from some non-recognising
countries, namely Tunisia, Morocco, Tajikistan, Israel, Slovakia and Greece. This shows that
there is an easing of atmosphere
and understanding about the
situation in the Balkans which
will be conducive to further cementing our bilateral recognition. Kosovo has also been accepted as the newest member of the
Council of Europe Development
Bank. We also obtained feasibility study for Stabilisation-Association Agreement, a very demanding process that describes
the first steps to EU accession.
As a result of our relentless efforts in all areas, this June our
efforts culminated with the decision of the Council of the European Union to autho-rise the
European Union to start talks on
Stabilisation and Asso¬ciation
Agreement with Kosovo.. Kosovo has made only the first baby
steps in the process of European
accession and EU integration.
This was a necessary first step
PETRIT
SELIMI
DEPUTY
FOREIGN MINISTER
OF KOSOVO
which basically gave the outline
of our preparedness for various
sectors in the forthcoming process of formal integration into
EU. Kosovo also became fullfledged participant of Regional
Cooperation Council (RCC). Our
Prime Minister met the Serbian
Prime Minister, Dacic, in several dialogue rounds. These were
started by the European Union,
moderated by Baroness Ashton
of the European External Action
Service, to find the way to normalise the relationship between
the two countries. Because of the
numerous blockades by the Serbian side for the normalisation of
the relationship, the UN General Assembly in September 2010,
voted for a resolution based on
the opinion of the International
Court of Justice, which confirmed that Kosovo’s declaration
of independence is in line with
the international law. Following
that opinion, which was a landmark for our legal case, the European Union started a process of dialogue between the
two countries which is meant to
find normalisation. We appreciate, and we expect, that Serbia will recognise Kosovo, sooner or later. We understand that
we have to move forward, and in
order to move forward we have
to normalise the relationship
in many of the critical aspects
where people, countries, economies interact, such as energy, telecommunications, regional cooperation against crime, as
well as other issues which will
enable both countries to move
forward in the integration process. So that dialogue brought
the result that the northern part
of Kosovo, which is controlled by
illegal parallel structures of Serbia in three municipalities, will
now for the first time pay taxes
and customs to Kosovo’s bud-
get. On the other hand, we have
made a promise that these taxes
and customs will be dedicated
to the development of the northern municipalities of Kosovo.
So, there is a little bit of a “quid
pro quo”, they accept our customs, but then we will also dedicate resources to show to Serbs
in the northern part of Kosovo
that they are welcome in our society, that we will be investing
continuously in the regions in
which they have a control. Our
GDP growth last year was 4%,
5% down because of the recession in the Balkans. However, in
the last 5 consecutive years our
average growth was 5.5%, which
higher than anybody else in the
Balkans and Europe. Only Turkey beats us in the GDP growth
for 5 years in a row, whereas Estonia is close to us. Our growth
came from a very Keynesian model of economy, meaning that
we were able to increase the tax
collection and tax receipts because we have a lot of grey economy. But when it was collected it went back to the system in
form of stimulus. The stimulus
took shape of increasing of salaries. We are the only country in
the world which has increased
the public employees’ salaries
in the middle of the financial
crisis in 2009-2010 by 50%. So,
all teachers, firemen and policemen got 50% increase across the
board: 85,000 people in total. We
also invested in road infrastructure. About 42% of our budget
of 2012 went for infrastructure.
Namely, the construction of major highway built by American
“Bechtel”, the world’s biggest
private construction company.
This highway connects Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, and
further on. Before, when I was
a child, I used to travel to Albania for 12 hours, 10 when I had to
go to Montenegro. Now it is only
about 4 hours to Albania. It is a
brand new highway, which was
finished just a few months ago,
and it will enable a lot of movement of goods and people. That
itself will impact the growth. We
watched our public diplomacy
department grow: we fundraised
about 4.5 million euros to make
sure that we used modern ways
of public diplomacy and interaction. We realised that in the time
of Facebook, Al Jazeera and the
global spreading of information
we also have consider the popular communities: the public.
There are countries who do not
recognise Kosovo because they
do not know about Kosovo, or
they are prejudiced against Kosovo, or they have issues which
have nothing to do with Kosovo, such as internal issues with
their minorities, which might
have a spillover effect. We try
to make sure that we have as
much interaction as possible
with stakeholders, journalists,
media and civil society. For example, Slovakia is a non-recognising country. Nevertheless, we
have made sure that about 200
Slovaks from various strata of
society, media, and the government come here, and we go there,
to better understand each other
and the issues at stake. We are
convinced that whoever comes
to Kosovo breaks the prejudice.
People come with various sorts
of ideas, but, when they arrive
here they see a country which is
really striving to be normal.
Kosovo is actually a place of
tolerance, that this a place where
it is 95% Muslim, but if you go
outside and you cross Mother
Teresa Street, with the monuments of Mother Teresa and
George Kastrioti Skanderbeg,
who fought the Ottomans for
fifty years, and you pass Mother
Teresa you will find the Catholic
cathedral built in the middle of
the city by Albanians from the
United States. If you go to YouTube you will see that Chuck
Schumer, the Jewish American
Senior Senator from New York,
was the key fundraiser for the
cathedral. On the right from the
cathedral, you will cross Bill
Clinton Avenue, with the big
Bill Clinton monument. Further down the avenue, you will
cross Bob Dole Street. In the interfaith department we are working to ensure that Kosovo becomes a basis for interfaith dialogue. The Turkish magazine
“Yeni Diplomasi”, which was
published last December, has
done a research on different digital diplomacy strategies around
the world, They ranked Kosovo as having the 4th best strategy after the United States, Great
Britain and Israel. We have also
successfully implemented three
projects. App Camp Kosovo, allowed mobile application developers to create apps for Android
and iOS platforms which aimed
to promote the best parts of the
Republic of Kosovo in four categories: a) News and Information from Kosovo; b) Culture,
Heritage, Traditions; c) Kosovo Tourism and Economy, and
d) an entertainment game app
about Kosovo. Then came the
Wiki Academy Kosovo 2013, in
which young people, students
and historians learnt how to use
Wikipedia. This is important because the internet has a lot of information about Kosovo: some of
it is faulty and some of it is subject to propaganda by activist actors. It is very important that we
make sure that all the accurate
information is also there. To do
this we had experts and historians who came from the United
States and across Europe work
with a large group of students,
about 200 applied, to teach them
how to use Wikipedia. Strict guidelines were applied. Propaganda was not allowed, facts had to
be checked, and there had to be
encyclopedic references This
is something that we will start
teaching students. We also had
an instagram competition. The
best instaphotos of Kosovo were
selected by a jury who picked a
hundred of the best photos by
Kosovars on social networks.
The best 100 photos were published in a special book and a website, covering nature, people, and
events. Human rights is another
the important field. Kosovo is
the only country in the Balkans
which has LGBT as a constitutional category. So, constitutional rights are non-exhaustive to
only Muslims, Albanians, Serbs,
or black or white, but they are also granted to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals. That
caused some frustration among
some of faith groups who think
that we should be a more traditionalist and more focused to
old moral values. But, I am very happy that we can say that,
at least in terms of the legal infrastructure, this country is very progressive. This constitution
is in line with the highest standards of the devolution of power
andthe protection of national
minorities, which makes sure
that Kosovo is truly a civic state
rather than an ethnic state. This
country truly is a civic country.
My prime minister is Albanian,
but my Deputy Prime Minister
is a Serb. Serbs make up about
5.5% of the population, but they
have about 18% of MP seats, because of the positive discrimination clause which guarantees
10 seats for Serbs out of the 120
Assembly members, and then
whatever they get from the elections. They have a lot of the tools
and mechanisms entrenched to
protect them from over-voting in
parliament, including the need
for the Serb vote to be two-third
positive for each of the clauses
of the laws which touch national minorities. Hence, there are
various types of instruments
which have been built in the system to enable the protection of
minority rights.
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
15
sep t/oct 2013
Europe / Kosovo
Romanian PM Ponta: Romania should embrace
same stance on Kosovo as its EU partners
Prime Minister Victor Ponta
on Monday reiterated that in
his opinion, Romania should
coordinate its stance on the
status of Kosovo with its European partners, given that 22
EU member states have already
recognised Kosovo’s independence. He also said he will discuss the matter next week with
his Slovakian counterpart, Robert Fico.
Ponta made this statement
at a joint meeting of Romania’s
Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs, which debated the
status of Kosovo. “This is a step
toward the idea of a new relationship between Parliament
and the Government, including
as far as foreign policy relations
are concerned, a step toward
strengthening the relationship
in order to cooperate in making
decisions and holding consultations. We have come before you
today not with a proposal for a
decision, but with a brief and
probably a discussion with you
over a delicate issue, a tough issue on Romania and EU’s foreign policy agenda,” said Ponta. He pointed out having discussed the issue with the Serb
Prime Minister, who visited Bucharest last week. “As you may
know, there are developments in
this issue. At this time, at a European level, there are only five
member states having not recognised the independence of the
Kosovo province. Among them
is Romania. In Bucharest, we
had talks that included this issue
as well with Serbia’s prime minister. Next week in Bratislava I
will also have a conversation on
the same matter with Slovakia’s
Prime Minister Fico. The Romanian diplomacy, under a co-decision of the President and the
prime minister and a resolution
passed by Parliament, has each
time respected the decisions on
a political level, but we are in a
continual adaptation to the European and world political situation and the idea of having this
conversation is meant exactly to
find out whether or not Romania
is heading in a certain direction
or stay inflexible, stuck to an opinion to which it committed itself
years ago,” said Ponta. He added
that there are wide-ranging opinions, starting with the rejection
of the idea of ever recognising
the independence of Kosovo, all
the way to the adoption of a position that is coordinated at the EU
level. “There is a wide range of
opinions, starting with the opinion of never recognising the
independence of Kosovo in any
context, up to the idea toward I
am leaning closer and closer of
Romania taking a position that
is coordinated with its European
and trans-Atlantic partners and
thus acknowledging a fact. Yet,
all this cannot be decided by the
Government alone, the President
or Parliament alone. In fact, I
have already discussed this way
of thinking with the President,”
said Ponta. He added that following discussions inside the
foreign affairs committees of
the Romanian Parliament, a direction has to be chosen for Romania in relation to the status of
Kosovo as well as the speed with
which the country will move.
Heritage train launched in Kosovo
A special train ride was
launched on Saturday for all
communities to visit and explore
religious and cultural heritage
sites throughout western Kosovo. A total of 120 people join the
first trip on «Hajde» (Come) Heritage Train 2013 which departed
from Pristina on Saturday morning. The destination is western
city of Peja/Pec, where the group
could visit the Orthodox Patriarchate, Bajrakli Mosque, while on
Sunday the destination is Deqani/Decani Monastery which is
in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The head of Council of
Europe Office in Pristina, Tim
Cartwright said the project is
part of European Heritage Days
which are organised throughout
September.«European Heritage
Days are days throughout Europe when heritage sites open
themselves up to the public and
this is part of our attempt to encourage people see and enjoy
the culture heritage which is all
around them,» Cartwright told
reporters. Kosovo Deputy Minister of Culture Hajdin Abazi,
said the respect to religious and
cultural heritage is something
of great importance for Kosovo
today.
«It is important, because as
people of Kosovo we need to come together, we need to cooperate, to have interactions with
each other, so in this sense we
are interested to provide our
supports to such activities in order to make this idea be successful,» said Abazi. The train will
run on Saturdays and Sundays
throughout September. During
all day long trip, visitors will
have the chance to visit a number of religious and cultural sites
in western Kosovo, mainly in Pe-
ja/Pec and Deqan/Decane. Some
of this heritage was a source of
divisions for the communities in
the past, while now all the efforts
are put forward to make this heritage unite communities.
16
sep t/oct 2013
Kosovo’s New Diplomat
Events at the National Gallery of Kosovo
— Press release
ALONE TOGETHER
Photography and the Other
Artists: Abramovic & Ulay, Qëndresë Deda, Julian
Germain, Majlinda Hoxha, Samir Karahoda, Genc
Kadriu, Milomir Kovacevic, Antoan Kurti, Eva Leitolf,
Martino Marangoni, Atdhe Mulla, Joachim Schmid,
Oliver Sieber, Olson Lamaj, Otto Snoek, Ari Versluis&
Ellie Uyttenbroek.
The Gjon Mili biennial exhibition is the most siginificant exhibition and competition for the photography art in Kosovo. The 13th Gjon Mili Exhibition is
curated by Frits Gierstberg. Photography is a powerful
medium that is not only used by photographers and
artists, but by all of us.
We are all constantly making photographs and using
them for various reasons. We photograph each other
in an act of sharing the experience of the moment, or
as a memory tool. Photographs are images that bind us
together, but they are also part of social rituals that create difference. That separate ‘you’ from ‘me’. They are
part of our identity, or they even help create an identity.
They confirm that we exist, but at the same time they
may question who we are. In the process of globalisa-
tion, and with the growing influence of the internet,
ideas and concepts of identity and individuality are
changing. On the internet, borders between private and
public change. Here, we share our lives with strangers. Traditional social structures that have defined our
identities in the past are crumbling. We are more free to
choose who we are, where we belong, with whom we
share our lives. The place where we live does not define
any longer who we are.
But as we strive to be unique individuals or communities, at the same time we also want to belong: to a
group, to larger community, to the world. We want to
be different and the same, at the same time.
The Gjon Mili XIII exhibition will focus on the role
that photography is playing
in the (de)construction of identity and difference. It
will explore, through the work of different photographers and artists, the borders between the individual
and the collective, between the self and the other,
between ‘you’ and ‘me’, and how these concepts are
changing in the globalising world.
Enver Bylykbashi ©
Galerisë Kombëtare të Kosoves / National Gallery of Kosovo
Frits Gierstberg
13th Gjon Mili Photography Prize exhibition
13 September - 13 October 2013
National Gallery of Kosovo
Agim Ramadani 60
Pristina, Kosovo
T 00381 38 225627
E [email protected]
www.galeriakombetare.com
fb/Galeria.e.Arteve.e.Kosoves