Strasburg, 20 January 2011 – On the second day of his stay in Strasburg, the Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo Dr. Jakup Krasniqi held a working meeting with the Working Group on the Balkan, which is composed of members of European Parliament who share a mutual interest in the Balkan and which was established within the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The group is chaired by the Austrian Member of the European Parliament Hanes Svoboda, and Doris Pack, Eduard Kukan, Jelko Kacin, Ulrike Lunacek and others are members.
The meeting was chaired by the Chair of the WG Hanes Svoboda, who first wished the Acting President welcome and outlined European Parliamentary Group’s views on latest developments in Kosovo.
At the very beginning, Mr. Svoboda dwelled on Dick Marty’s report, holding it a strange report and without substance and, in a way, he expressed a dose of criticism towards his colleague Dick Marty concerning his ungrounded allegations and a working meeting that was convoked by the Foreign Affairs Committee, to which Mr. Marty had failed to respond by failing thus to cooperate with the Euro parliamentarians on the issue.
He also mentioned Dick Marty’s partial withdrawal from his report and the fact that he has apparently learned himself that the report is without substance.
In the course of the meeting, which was also attended by the members of the Working Group and other deputies, like Tarja Fajon and other members of the European Parliament, the Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo Dr. Jakup Krasniqi introduced latest developments in Kosovo following President Sejdiu’s resignation and the take over of his duty and all developments that have taken place in full compliance with the Constitution, starting with his acting as President and up to the organisation of early elections and so on.
He also spoke of elections and their conduct, reiterating his earlier positions on mistakes that were made and saying that he was optimistic that independent institutions of Kosovo are doing their utmost to correct mistakes that were made during elections and to make sure that the process is brought to normal.
Speaking of Dick Marty’s report, Mr. Krasniqi expressed his and Kosovo institutions’ position that the report is a recycling of an investigation that was carried out by the Hague Tribunal in 2004, when the prosecution could not file an indictment due to the lack of facts.
Later on, Mr. Krasniqi replied to the members of the European Parliament on a variety of issues. The European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek – who spoke of her report on irregularities identified in last elections in Kosovo and her public statements – raised the issue of an election reform in Kosovo.
Speaking about this, Mr. Krasniqi said that the current election system in Kosovo is almost a unique one and that Kosovo needs an electoral reform i.e. division into electoral zones and the option of closed lists.
Ms. Lunacek also spoke of Mr. Dick Marty’s report, emphasising that the report requires a real investigation and that, if there are facts and these facts are established and if Mr. Marty is in possession of evidence and that evidence is established too, perpetrators should be brought to justice.
In relation to this, Mr. Krasniqi said that, in such a case, the verdict and the final answer should be brought by judicial bodies.
Having referred to a satisfactory participation of Serbian community in elections, the European Parliament’s Rapporteur Jelko Kacin wanted to know more about the inclusion of Serbian community in our country’s Government.
On his part, Mr. Krasniqi said minority communities will participate in our country’s governance as they have in the past.
The Member of the European Parliament Tarja Fajon raised the visa liberalisation issue. The A/President of Kosovo said all relevant ministries whose work is related to the process, such as Ministry of Internal Affairs, are dealing with all measures and maintaining regular contacts with EU institutions to provide all opportunities for kicking off visa liberalisation dialogue as soon as possible.
The meeting was closed in a spirit of friendship and trust in deepening and maintaining cooperation between members of the European Parliament and EU institutions and Kosovo.