A meeting of the Stabilization and Association Agreement Council between a Kosovo government delegation and the EU was held today, but the conclusions were not made public as the joint press conference of Hahn, Mogherini, and Haradinaj was canceled, a journalist of Radio Free Europe, Gjeraqina Tuhina tweeted.
Shortly before the meeting, which was scheduled for 13.00h, Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj announced on Twitter that the „progress and challenges on the European path“ will be discussed during the meeting.
„In Brussels today, heading for the 3rd Meeting of the SAA Council between the EU and Kosovo, where we will review the progress & challenges on our European path,“ he tweeted.
According to announcements, the meeting was attended by Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, Minister of EU Integration, Durata Hoxha, Deputy Prime Minister, Enver Hoxhaj, and Foreign Minister, Behgjet Pacolli. The EU delegation was represented by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn.
The EU has requested suspension of decisions on taxes before today’s meeting
Radio Free Europe reported yesterday that they came into possession of a letter sent to Ramush Haradinaj on December 12th. The letter was sent by EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, as well as the Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, who offered Kosovo the replacement of the “UNMIK” inscription in the CEFTA agreement with the „Kosovo*“ inscription, while part of the solution would include a wider issue of „modernization and revitalization“ of the CEFTA agreement. In return, they asked Kosovo to suspend the decision on taxes until today’s meeting.
A similar proposal was given by Commissioner Hahn during his official visit to Pristina in early December.
At the end of the meeting with Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thaci, and Kadri Veseli, Johannes Hahn then said that customs pose a serious problem and should be abolished. He offered to help find a solution by organizing a special forum that would focus only on trade issues.
Haradinaj responded to the EU proposal on December 15th
The Pristina-based Insajderi published Haradinaj’s letter today, in which he sent his reply to the EU proposal on December 15th.
He wrote that he is grateful for the EU’s commitment and the „seriousness of their approach“, but that this problem has passed the phase in which it can be resolved in isolation.
The letter also says that this is the time „for a new initiative to raise the dialogue to a higher level where problems like this would be included in a wider agreement.“
Finally, Haradinaj’s letter draws attention to the draft of the final agreement presented to ambassadors of the Quint countries and the head of the EU delegation in Kosovo.
„Our goal is to combine all the things that have already been agreed upon and put forward a single instrument that can form the basis for a legally binding agreement between the two countries,“ the letter reads, Insajderi reported.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
