The Government of the Republic of Kosovo, led by Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, has held its 117th regular meeting, where it approved draft laws and other decisions.

The first point to be supported by the Government was the decision in amending and supplementing the Legislative Program 2016 of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, which foresees the amendment of time limit for some laws, such as: the amendment of the Law on Accounting, Financial Reporting and Audit; Draft Law on amending and supplementing the Law on the Privatization Agency of Kosovo. In the meantime it was proposed that this year the legislative plan shall withdraw the following laws: the Law on Administrative Disputes; Draft Law Amending the Law on Civil Servants; Draft Law on State Administration; Draft Law on Salaries paid by the budget of the Republic of Kosovo; Draft Law on Investment Funds, Draft Law on Kosovo Customs and Tax Administration Inspectorate and the Draft Law on amending the Customs Code. Also, the Deputy Prime Minister Kuci said that after the discussions that were held with Minister Jagcillar and Minister Hoti, the Draft Law on Salaries may be processed this year, inviting Minister Jagcillar to prepare it for the meeting as soon as possible, but it shall also be named the Draft Law on Salaries in Public Sector.

Prime Minister Mustafa said that there is an agreement with the EU that the Draft Law on Salaries, the Draft Law on Civil Servants and the one on Organisation of Administration are drafted at the same time. However, with the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister Kuci they agreed to proceed with the Draft Law on Salaries since it is ready and are all the preparations are done. “Then, we shall proceed with the concept papers for these two other Laws, and their entry into force shall be made at the same time so that we then respect the agreement we have with the EU, but we need to prolong the laws that we have prepared and in which we worked for a long time. Therefore, I would ask Minister Jagxhillar and Minister of Finance that among the remaining works, the Draft Law on Salaries shall be ready for the next week and it shall not be restricted only to salaries that are provided from the budget but also for salaries provided by public funds, which implies other agencies and public companies, for those funds in which the Government is a shareholder of these companies and we shall set up a general rule in this system", said the Prime Minister.

The Draft Law on Legalization of Weapons and Surrender of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Ammunition and Explosives was also approved by the Cabinet. This draft law defines the rights of physical and legal persons for the legalization of weapons and surrender of small arms and light weapons, ammunition and explosives which are in their illegal possession. The Cabinet has also supported the proposal of the Deputy Prime Minister to give them an authorization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in coordination with the Police and with the decision of the Government to grant periodic amnesty for voluntary surrender, to persons for whom there will not be legal consequences.

Government of Kosovo approved the Draft Law on Vehicles. This law defines the basic conditions of equipment and installations, which must be in the vehicles, dimensions, maximum permitted weight and the axletree burden, as well as the conditions which the vehicle must meet in traffic, conditions for import, technical control, their registration and other issues, such as the treatment of vehicles involved in accidents and those who are out of use.

Regulation on internal organization and systematization of job positions in the Ministry of Finance was approved by the Government.

The Cabinet also approved the decision to transfer the Agency of State Archives of Kosovo from the Office of the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The Deputy Prime Minister Kuci also announced that they are also planning to transfer some other agencies like the Agency of Statistics and KVFA and others to competent ministries, in accordance with the legal acts. Prime Minister Isa Mustafa emphasized the need for some other agencies, in accordance with legal procedures, to be transferred to certain ministries which would assist in the planning process. "We will see how to reduce other agencies and offices for which we can say are not needed that much for an easier management as they are for making a rational structure which functions as well as related responsibilities, because we all estimated that the Veterinary Agency has no functional interface or responsibility with the Office of Prime Minister, and the rest of them are the same and will be transferred there in a functional and responsible manner" said the Prime Minister.

The government also adopted the final decision on public interest expropriation of the social property registered in the name of the Association "Vllaznim Bashkim", Cadastral Zone Prishtina, Lakerishte, for needs of accommodation of the Institution of Kosovo Pensions Savings Trust.

Kosovo Government also decided to establish the group for Functional Review for the Rule of Law Sector in Kosovo. The review process of the rule of law sector, aims: – To identify and define strategic and developing objectives of the rule of law in order to increase the effectiveness of state institutions in law enforcement; – To review the legal infrastructure governing the rule of law and the processes and cooperation between institutions that are responsible in the rule of law area; – To assess the capacities of institutions that are responsible in the rule of law area.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Valon Murtezaj, presented to the Cabinet the document with national attitudes regarding the first meeting of the Stabilization and Association Council that will be held in Brussels.

Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Arsim Bajrami, spoke about the completion of the implementation of the Kosovo Education Strategic Plan 2011-2016 and the preparation of the new development plan for education 2017-2021 by the Ministry of Education.

Deputy Prime Minister Ramiz Kelmendi stressed the importance of cooperation of the Ministry of Education with vocational schools and the economy for the preparation of an organizational form of practical work at the time when some companies go on collective summer and winter vacation.

Minister for Dialogue Edita Tahiri, informed the Cabinet about the recent process of negotiations in Brussels, particularly as regards the agreement on the telephone code for Kosovo. “I can say that it is already decided that Kosovo will have its national telephone dialling code 383 which will be allocated directly by ITU and this will happen on December 15, 2016. The benefits of our country upon receiving the ITU dialling code are as follows: Republic of Kosovo shall create its own national identity in the field of telecommunications, after it is internationally recognized and identified with its unique national code 383. With the implementation of the new code for Kosovo, the three existing codes 381, 377 and 386 will no longer be used. The Republic of Kosovo has its own telephone code 383 and is sovereign in governing the code independently. Kosovo will manage its own code and will directly cooperate with the United Nations Organization for ITU telecom for the technical implementation process of this code. On this occasion the frequency limit between the two countries, Kosovo and Serbia will also be set and the path for Kosovo to achieve the national digitization program by the ITU standards will be open. In economic views, there are lots of benefits of this agreement for Kosovo’s telephone country code. According to the analysis there will be benefits in millions, considering the high costs caused by the lack of code and especially the need of operators to pay financial obligations in order to make use of foreign codes. Therefore, we will be saving and such costs will not be needed, which will directly reflect in improving telecom services to citizens, but also in increasing our budget, given the fact that Vala operator is public, but are also issues of increased revenues in the form of taxes. The country code agreement ends the activities of illegal operators that have been operating in our country since the war. With this agreement the three illegal operators shall stop their activities. Also with the implementation of this agreement, all interferences which have been present in this period will be ceased and it will certainly improve the quality of the signal in using mobile and fixed telephony. It is important to note that we have already mentioned this issue and we would like to inform once again that Austria has applied for national dialling code for Kosovo in January of this year and there will also be a letter of commitment by Serbia, with which it will be committed to ITU that it will not cause obstacles to Kosovo dialling code when the ITU decision is taken. Well, I am talking about eventual obstacles of negative lobbying that may affect this process. Finally, after six years of negotiations, the time has come for Kosovo to have its own telephone code 383 for the first time in its history", said Minister Tahiri.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said that this is a very important agreement, which Serbia has tried to prolong at any cost until now. “We welcome this agreement and also insist in its implementation. Obviously the insistence is not oriented towards our bodies and institutions, since they have shown their cooperation and willingness, but also the utmost devotion, but it is oriented towards the Serb party, so that on December 15 the ITU shall grant to Kosovo its telephone code which will then be in the service of our citizens, and besides other sovereignty effects, it will have state and economic effects, for which the Minister Tahiri already spoke", said Prime Minister Mustafa.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, also has informed the Cabinet about some developments that have taken place this week in the period between the two meetings of the Government. “I had a meeting with civil society, in order to see the bridges and ways of intensifying cooperation with civil society, because you know that we have the I had a meeting with civil society, in order to see the bridges and ways of intensifying cooperation with civil society, because you know that we have the strategy of cooperation with civil society and it is being worked on the implementation of this Strategy. There were views that some results have been achieved, but some have remained; we have stalled in some areas, but I have expressed commitment of the Government that we intensify this cooperation and overcome all the obstacles that we have in this regard. Next week we will have a meeting with the joint Council of the government and civil society, which on our side consists of general secretaries and ministers directly related to the implementation of this strategy and we are interested that the civil society, namely the citizens exercise as much influence as they can in the preparation and implementation of laws, both in the European integration processes and on strategic issues which are of national interest.

The President of the country during this period has also held the meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Council. The achievements made during this period were also identified there, but so was the need to further engage in this field. We are left to work in the area of conclusion of all opportunities of public procurement, of opportunities for corruption, deformation of this process or use of public money. I have discussed this earlier in the Government. The occurrences, contracts shall be oriented in a limited number of firms and other occurrences shall be overcome. Every ministry shall be careful not to allow this. It shall be good to make transparent to the public all the contracts that we have signed as well as their amounts and the forms by which they were concluded so that they are fully available to the opinion. We shall be informed about the Government, which shall be transparent, so that we will know the importance level of those contracts, so that we will be begin to see if certain distortions, if any, are present in the ministries, or in other places, including the public Procurement Review Body, as in this regard we must be able to observe all the relations so that we can eliminate every opportunity to abuse with public money.

We have had two important confirmations for our country: The one of an important German institute, that Kosovo has achieved the highest rate of economic growth not only in the region but also in Europe, since we have had an increase of over 4 percent, which growth, according to preliminary information we have, will be present this year as well. We will also remain at a good level regarding tax relief and other reliefs which are provided for citizens.

Yesterday, we had a meeting on the protection of children and it was concluded that in terms of children’s rights, we have achieved quite a lot, but of course that it is a highly sensitive area, in which I believe that we must all work so that we will provide a much better future to our children" said Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, by thanking them for the work and commitment, but also looking forward to jointly intensify the agenda and keep the promises made to citizens.