Prishtina, 13 March, 2024
Dear cabinet members, deputy prime ministers, ministers and deputy ministers,
Dear citizens,
The march of anniversaries continues.
This morning we paid tribute to the 25th anniversary of the massacre at the Green Market in Mitrovica. In the following days, until the end of the month, we will commemorate the Massacre of Krusha e Vogel and Krusha e Madhe, the Berisha Family Massacre in Suharekë, the Izbica Massacre, the Bogujevci, Duriqi and Llugaliu Families Massacre in Podujevë, the Beleg Massacre and The Massacre of Pastasella.
In this next meeting of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, the 193rd, we are meeting for the last time before the third anniversary of our government and before the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Serbia.
With a clear goal and a lively aspiration to join NATO, yesterday we congratulated the 25th anniversary of NATO membership to the three countries of the former “Eastern Bloc”, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Meanwhile, a week ago we also congratulated Sweden for becoming the newest member, the 32nd, of the Euro-Atlantic alliance, to prove again that a strong NATO means a safer and probably more secure Europe for peace on the continent.
This month, on International Women’s Day, shortly after midnight, a woman from the ranks of the Serbian community in Kosovo, who held a high leadership position at the municipal level, in a municipality with a Serbian majority, became the target of elements of the group’s criminal. Natasha Tomaniq, the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Zveçan, started March 8 with the news that her private property was set on fire. The evidence gathered from the examination of the scene points to deliberate arson. The financial damage is estimated to be around 40,000 euros. But the purpose of the attack was not financial, however much the damage will be a burden. Intimidation and terror were the goals towards Vice President Tomaniq and all Kosovo Serbs, especially in the north of the country, who want integration into the institutions and society of Kosovo, because that way their well-being is better.
And yet, despite the fact that it is about a woman from the Serbian community in Kosovo who holds an official position in the public institutions of Kosovo, the silence of the international community even five days after the attack is becoming more and more deafening. Such silence is as discouraging as it is encouraging. Discouraging for one party, the victim. Encouraging the other party, the aggressor.
Because the attack on the vice president of Zveçan, Tomaniq, did not happen in a vacuum. Just like the footage of the criminal and terrorist Milan Radoicic, terrorizing the Serbian community and then the meeting with the Ambassador of Serbia in the United States of America, also did not happen in a vacuum.
On the one hand, these represent the continuous effort of Serbia, in cooperation with the Russian Federation, to destabilize Kosovo and our region, but they are also a direct consequence of not punishing Serbia for sponsoring and orchestrating the terrorist attack by paramilitaries from Serbia in Banjska. Milan Radoicic is free and protected in Serbia and from Serbia.
Since September 24, we have demanded that measures be taken for Serbia’s aggression against Kosovo. We requested the extradition of the terrorists who killed the sergeant, Hero of Kosovo, Afrim Bunjaku in Kosovo. Until today, Serbia has not faced any consequences for the terrorist attack, without which its direct involvement has become known publicly and worldwide.
Now when our continent, with the help of the United States of America, is proving to Russia and all the autocracies in the world, the commitment to fight and protect democracy at all costs, Kosovo is witnessing the greatest democratic progress in the region.
For every country in Europe and the world, the progress that our government has witnessed in these three years would be more than clear and more than sufficient indicators to be considered a worthy partner and ally of the transatlantic alliance.
Of course, our government has no other alternative and cannot do more than good governance;
There is no alternative but the rule of law.
There is no other alternative but the advancement of democracy, rights, freedoms and fundamental values, and
There is no other alternative but unwavering alignment with the transatlantic alliance.
Our government treats every citizen of the Republic as equal before the law and is committed to work and welfare for all.
And with our neighbors we want good neighborly relations, peace and reciprocity and mutual respect.
We are working honestly in our right, we are on the right path and aligned right.
As a people and as a government, as an orientation and as a faith, we always work and commit to strengthen and advance the strong and special ties with the United States of America, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Turkey, and all countries democratic and those that have helped us in the liberation, independence and development of our country.
Dear colleagues from our Government, media journalists, dear citizens of the Republic,
In the last two years, our Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, me as the Prime Minister, the members of the Government individually, the President, the Speaker of the Parliament, the delegation of the Assembly of Kosovo to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, other members of the Assembly, all of us, have been engaged in a very difficult lobbying process to make our Republic’s membership in the Council of Europe a reality. We have left no stone unturned and no one without meeting. However, since the request for membership was further processed in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in May of last year, the responsible Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly has made a detailed assessment of the institutional and legal framework in terms of democracy, human rights of good governance standards.
A report by Eminent Jurists (an official document of the Council of Europe) has concluded that Kosovo is a state with a stable framework of democratic institutions. The report has listed several conditions, among which was the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo for the Monastery of Deçan, from 2016. The report is public and remains a document that cannot be changed or excluded from our path to KiE; it would remain there as a list of conditions today, after a year, after ten years.
After a massive process of meetings, visits and communications, it has become clear to us that of the many conditions we had for membership in the Council of Europe, some have been found to have been fulfilled and some have been listed as non-urgent issues, but one remains and will not be removed: the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court on the issue related to the Monastery of Deçan. It has been made clear to the Government by the Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly, by the main political groups in the Parliamentary Assembly representing the parliaments of the member states, by the QUINT states, that we must choose between two options: to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court and it is possible for us to move forward with the aim of joining the Council of Europe this year, or removing the issue of Kosovo from the membership agenda and consequently giving up a democratic and state-building goal of our Republic.
We tried on March 5 for the last time to postpone the approval of the opinion for membership in the said Committee, but without success. I am convinced that we have to choose one option, there is no third solution. As the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, we do not like that strange and unfair decision, and in the meantime there are other court proceedings pending on this issue, as we as a government no longer have legal means to annul the decision of the Constitutional Court. I will never change my attitude towards this harmful decision. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe would not only be a historic victory, but also a giant step for our Republic towards the recognition of the European five that enables membership in NATO and the EU for independent Kosovo.
In exercising judgment on this matter, I am guided by common sense. No one has the right to deny the Republic of Kosovo the right to be a state equal to any other state on our continent. No one has the right to deprive the citizens of the Republic of the right to feel like European citizens by having the right to access the European Court of Human Rights and dozens of other mechanisms that make up the pan-European democratic machinery of the Council. of Europe.
You are a consolidated and equal state on the European continent, first of all, being a member of the Council of Europe. Above all, a reasonable decision was required, unfortunately not completely fair; but, nevertheless, in order to achieve a much greater goal that we owe to the state and that opens unprecedented opportunities, we must take a step forward with prudence and responsibility as an independent and sovereign country.
Therefore, today we told the Cadastral Agency of Kosovo to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court, while the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Donika Gërvalla, has sent a verbal note informing about this issue to the Council of Europe. On March 22nd is the extraordinary meeting of the Committee there, towards the middle of April is the Parliamentary Assembly of KiE and at the end of May is the Council of Ministers in KiE that decides on our membership.
Thank you.
Last modified: March 13, 2024