Prishtina, 11 September, 2024
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Yesterday, together with ministers Xhelal Sveçla and Elbert Krasniqi, we were on a visit to the Municipality of Leposaviq, first respectively to the villages of Bistricë, Cerajë and Leshak, and then to the Municipality of North Mitrovica.
Our visits, of state officials, to these municipalities are not against anyone. In fact, they are necessary to understand the needs that these municipalities have, after we have put aside any prejudice that our government has been committed to since its first day. Precisely in order to discard mutual prejudices and to understand how neglected the citizens are, we are making these visits, which are working visits. Investments are being made there that were not made in the previous two decades. Services that have been missing for citizens are being added.
At the end of last month, after reports and confirmed evidence that Serbian parallel municipalities are operating in the four northern municipalities in occupied spaces, and are conducting illegal activities, our security institutions took legal action to close them down. This has enabled us, the governing institutions, to then offer legal services.
In those facilities, the Driver’s License Unit within the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, the Center for Social Work and Social Welfare Services within the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers, then the vehicle registration service within of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and other services of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, and the Ministry of Communities and Return.
So, our Government is not closing offices. On the contrary, our Government is opening an office. It is not reducing or limiting services, rather it is adding them. It is not taking public services away from citizens, on the contrary, it is offering them to them. This is how our actions in the north of the country should be seen.
Who is for closure and restriction, we saw once again at the end of last week. Groups of masked people, in the presence of the Police of Serbia, on the border with the Republic of Kosovo but in the territory of Serbia, played the role of the border police by stopping legitimate passenger cars to understand their ethnicity. During those days, our institutions, police and intelligence have been working minute by minute for the plans and goals of these groups to fail as they did.
There is too much work that is done, which is not well known in the public, and there are not so many discussions in the public. On this occasion, I want to express a special thanks to all our police officers and agents who have taken care and take care every time that the public and citizens see and live and experience only the positive results, contrary to the bad plans that are intended but that are never realized and never agreed upon.
Dear colleagues,
Yesterday we also marked the 12th anniversary of the end of the four-year supervision of our independence, in which case the Republic of Kosovo was fully entrusted with democratic and independent governance at the service of all citizens. We are grateful for the support of our friends and allies, those 25 countries within the International Monitoring Group, and we are proud of the strong institutional framework that our country enjoys as a result of joint efforts. We are side by side with them even today in values and orientations, in principles and convictions. The Republic of Kosovo is a proven success story, it is a triumph of democracy, human rights and legality.
Before we start with the agenda, I want to single out two of the decisions we will take today: the draft law for the State Bureau for Verification and Confiscation of Unjustified Assets and the National Program for Comprehensive Defense of the Republic of Kosovo.
For the first issue, we voted once again, in December 2021. After the opposition parties contested the Law in the Constitutional Court and the long wait of 17 months for treatment by this institution, the Ministry of Justice has brought before us the draft law again with the addressed remarks of the Court, to prove once again our seriousness and stability for this legal initiative.
As for the second issue, we will have it before us for the first time; is the Program of Comprehensive Defense or Total Defense as it is said otherwise drafted by the Ministry of Defense which is based on similar systems which are applied in different NATO countries. Through it we aim to build national resilience so that our society is prepared to resist, react and recover in cases of natural disasters or armed attacks. This system basically has the support that citizens give on a voluntary basis to the Kosovo Security Force combined with other state structures. Minister Haxhiu and Minister Macedonci will speak more extensively about both of these decisions at the media conference after this 220th meeting of our Government.
Dear colleagues, let me reiterate that the justice of our independence has as an argument the conclusion of the 4-year international supervision before 12 years, while the usefulness of our independence has as an argument democratic and economic progress, as well as stable peace and increased security for everyone.
And this should be noted exactly today when we mark the 23rd anniversary of the cruel terrorist attacks on the United States of America, in which case 2977 American citizens lost their lives, including 343 firefighters and 60 policemen who heroically tried to escape life. On this day, 23 years later, the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, the people of Kosovo, stands in solidarity with the United States of America, the families of the victims and joins the democratic governments around the world that cooperate against terrorism.
Honor and memory for them is eternal.
Last modified: September 11, 2024