Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the emergency situations in our country.
Read more
Every Thursday starting from 20:30, Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts the TV debate show "Life in Kosovo", a joint production of BIRN and RTK.
Read more
Life in Kosovo debates visa liberalisation
14 May 2009
This Thursday’s Life in
Kosovo travelled from Prishtina to Brussels
to closely analyse the Schengen visa liberalisation process for Kosovo, as well
as the European Union integration process.
Are Kosovars the only ones left out of the
Schengen visa liberalisation process? How far is Kosovo from the EU? What are
the differences between the countries of the region regarding the EU
integration process? Which countries are faring best and which ones worse? What
is the image of Albanians in Europe?
These issues were the main points of discussion in the studio of the European
Commission in Brussels,
also the location where the decision on Kosovo’s inclusion in Schengen visa
liberalisation will be taken.
Muhamet Hajrullahu’s guests for this debate were:
Augustin Palokaj – Kosovar daily Koha Ditore correspondent for Brussels
Ernest Bunguri – correspondent for the TV ALSAT in Macedonia
and Albania
Gjeraqina Tuhina – Radio Television of Kosova, RTK, correspondent for Brussels
Zelko Pantelic – Serbian daily Dnevnik correspondent for Brussels
The debate kicked off with Muhamet Hajrullahu’s question on whether
Kosovars are the only ones left out of the liberalisation process.
Gjeraqina Tuhina, RTK correspondent
for Brusseles, said that Kosova is not included in the process at all. “As off 2010, three Western Balkan countries, Serbia,
Macedonia and Montenegro,
will be able to move into the EU without visa restrictions because they enter
the so-called White Schengen List. Later in 2010, Albania
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
also have the visa restrictions eliminated, whereas Kosova is not even
mentioned in this process,” added Tuhina.
She also said that the European commissioner Olli Rehn had announced
that Kosovo will enter the visa liberalisation process in the distant future.
Given the time it has taken for Macedonia, a country that has
applied for EU membership back in 2005, according to Tuhina, it is going to
take a long time for Kosovars to join the White Schengen List.
Ernest Bunguri, TV Alsat correspondent for Macedonia
and Albania,
said that before Kosovo reaches the visa liberalisation process, it has to go
through certain procedures.
“All Balkan countries, Albania
being the first, have started the process of calling back all of their citizens
who live illegally in EU countries. This agreement has been signed between all
EU countries and the EU commission,” said Bunguri.
Asked whether the EU commission is aware of Serbia
issuing passports to Kosovars, Zelko Pantelic, Dnevnik correspondent for Brussels, explained that this actually is one of the main
problems for Serbia.
“Serbia has received
a notice that Serbia’s entry
to visa the liberalisation process might be postponed after September and the
new election in Germany, as Germany is the
key decision maker for this process,” explained Pantelic.
Speaking about Croatia,
which does not have a visa regime for the EU but has restrictions for Balkan
countries, Augustin Palokaj correspondent for daily Koha Ditore, said that the decisions on visa
regimes are always based on certain criteria, one being the risk of mass
migration.
“Croatia
has followed this logic from the EU and has applied visa regimes on countries
it believed where there was the risk of mass migration. The restrictions for Macedonia, Serbia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
have been removed,” explained Palokaj, adding that Bosnians in the summer
season don’t have to bring passports when going to Croatia.
“The visa regime has not been removed for Kosovo, and Croatia will
only remove it if EU institutions suggest it, because Kosovo is still
considered to pose a risk of mass migration if visa restrictions are removed”
said Palokaj.
Panteliq believed that there are three reasons why the Balkans is in a ghetto.
The first reason, according to him, was the legal one, as 5 EU member
countries have not yet recognised Kosovo’s independence.
“The second reason is about the prejudice that after visa liberalization
Kosovars will flood into EU and start mass migration, and the third one, which
I would really call hypocrisy, is about EU countries that have recognised
Kosovo’s statehood and still have very harsh visa restrictions on its
citizens,” explained Panteliq.
“I’d like to say something regarding the prejudices that Panteliq
mentioned,” stated Palokaj, explaining that these prejudices will not change as
long as reports of the EU commission continue to say that Kosovo is a transit
place for drugs, organ trafficking, human trafficking and for organised crime.
“This needs to change. In the legal, political aspect of not recognising independence,
some countries will individually ease the visa regime, but the problem is that
Schengen is a common decision of the EU countries,” explained Palokaj.
Asked whether Kosovo is ready to meet the criteria, Tuhina said that the most
progressed Balkan country in the current round, Macedonia, hypothetically needs at
least four years.
“Let’s not forget that in January 2006, EU has declared that it is ready to
ease the visa regime which will end with complete visa liberalisation,”
expressed Tuhina.
According to Bunguri, the fact that Kosovo was the youngest country in the region
poses a certain difficulty in its path to EU integration.
“Integration and liberalisation are two processes that go together,” noted
Bunguri.
The debate ended with Bunguri’s advice to politicians in the region for them
not to have euphoric theories of “I did this” or “I achieved this” because,
according to him, the path is long, but the criteria must be met.
This debate can be viewed online at http://blip.tv/file/2113628/
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public
Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.
It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20
THE PROCESS OF JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS AND REAPPOINTMENTS OF JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS
The report on the process of judicial appointments and reappointments analysis the flow of this process, specifically focusing on the bright and dark sides that have marred the process to its final stages.
COURT MONITORING ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 2010 - FEBRUARY 2011
Court monitoring report is published as a result of a continuous monitoring of all municipal and districts courts of Kosovo. The findings of this report are based on the monitoring of 2,147 court hearings, by BIRN monitors.
THE PROCESS OF JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
This report presents the results of part of BIRN's court monitoring project, specifically on the process for the appointment and reappointment of judges and prosecutors.
Follow the Paper Trail
\"Follow the Paper Trail\", a guide to document-based journalism in Kosovo, explains relevant laws, access to public documents, how to publish safely, where to find databases on investigative journalism, and how to locate documents online through various search engines.
Courts Monitoring Report 2010
A detailed analytical report about the work and administration of the courts in Prishtina, Peja, Prizren, Gjilan, Mitrovica, Ferizaj, Gjakova, Decan, Vushtrri, Poduleva, Lipjan, Klina and Istog. The report contains important information, collected by the network of monitors, placed in the major municipalities of Kosovo and aims to identify the key problems and issues that the justice system in Kosovo is facing.
REPORT: Monitoring the Courts 2009
Monitoring the work and administration of courts in Prishtina, Peja, Mitrovica, Gjilan, Ferizaj, Vushtrri and Skenderaj.
DIRECTLY ELECTED MAYOR SYSTEM IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE
The report on Directly Elected mayor System in Local Governance aims to provide a critical overview of the rationale and feasibility of the implementation of a municipal governance system that places the mayor as the central executive figure, during the third year of its application. The efficiency of this system was assessed based on the following pillars: the relationship between local government bodies, accountability of the municipal executive, respect for the law, the link between the mayor and the citizens, provision of public services (water supply and waste management, capital investments (in school and road projects)), level of transparency, public consultation and citizen participation in decision-making.
BIRN Report on Monitoring the Education System
Report on monitoring the elementary and high schools in Prishtina: Mitrovica, Ferizaj, Peja and Gjilan
Analytical report of the situation and the problems in the University of Prishtina
Report on Kosovo`s Healthcare System
Monitoring report on all primary, secondary and tertiary (University Clinical Center of Kosovo, UCCK) healthcare institutions in Pristina, Prizren, Peja, Mitrovica, Gjilan, Ferizaj, Gjakova, Klina, Decan, Istog and Vushtrri.
Situation and the Problems at the University of Prishtina
Analytical report of research into the standards and problems at the University of Prishtina. Ten years since the end of the war in Kosovo, the University of Prishtina (UP) continues to suffer from a variety of problems, resulting in persistently low quality courses being offered. For this reason, BIRN conducted research into the problems faced by UP students. The data gathered suggests that, out of the many issues reported, the most significant are: the non-implementation of contemporary teaching and assessment methods, the lack of practical work for students, the lack of appropriate academic literature, arbitrary assessments by
professors and generally poor relationships between students and their professors.
Download Here
Buy DVD
Click here to buy a copy of 'Does Anyone Have a Plan?,' BIRN's feature-length documentary on Kosovo's final status.
"Life in Kosovo" debates also available on DVDs now!
Read more
Post Your Comments
Write your comment on BIRN debates and other activities.With the new web-site BIRN looks forward to receive direct opinions from our readers via comment section.
Read more
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
Comments:
Common citizen
Posted: 2009-06-18 14:25:52,
dear all, You spoke smth that's well known for all ( even the children knows what you discuses)nothing new or special , useless. My advice for you , as newspaperman you should promote the best things which are achieved here not just worse things, or you do that because the core of news is bad things.