Udenrigsudvalget 2018-19 (1. samling)
URU Alm.del Bilag 53
Offentligt
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Co11sulat General de la Republique du Kosovo
a
Strasbourg
Ref: 16-11/2018
Strasbourg, 23.11.2018
NOTE VERBALE
The Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo in Strasbourg expresses its compliments to
the Head of Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to enclose
herewith a Non Paper of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo.
The Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo in Strasbourg avails itself of this
opportunity to renew to the Head of Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs the
assurances of its highest consideration.
t-\ ,
,PY
I
To:
Head of Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs
.,/
4 al lee Spach - b7000
~tra-,bourg
I mJ il:
cons [email protected]
fr l: 0 l 88.23.~-l.3H
 URU, Alm.del - 2018-19 (1. samling) - Bilag 53: Note verbale af 23. november 2018 fra Kosovos generalkonsulat i Strasbourg om forholdet mellem Kosovo og Serbien, Bosnien og Hercegovina
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NON PAPER
Reaffirming
the
commitment to the EU
facilitated
dialogue, regional cooperation and
good
neighbourly relations,
the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
Kosovo
wishes
to
inform international rommunityabout
the
latest developments which lead to undertaking
concrete measures from
the
Government of
the
Republic of Kosovo.
The
Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo
also
expresses its justifiable
concern regarding the latest destructive actions by
the
authorities of the Republic of Serbia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In
this
respect. Kosovo's 100% customs
tariffs
as one of the
many
options reviewed recently,
is
a
response
to Republic of Serbia's and
Bosnia
and
Herzegovina's infraction of
CEFTA
prov.i.sions and especially aggressive campaign and
destructive actions of Belgrade which
seek
to undermine Kosovo's sovereignty.
This
response is a combination of political and economic reasons why
the
concrete measure
was taken aimed to address the asymmetry of rights and uncompetitive behavior in trade
relations.
We
will
bring to your attention very briefly onJy some
of
the
most
offensive
and recent
actions addressed against Kosovo's subjectivity:
Republic
of
Serbia's aggression against
the
Republic
of
~vo internationally, in
particular pressure
to
countries
to
"revoke recognition of Kosovo• and
sabotage
to
membership
to international organizations;
- Arrests,
criminal
actions, blackmailing, threats towards the Serbian community
members of the Kosovo Security Forces and their
families;
- Physical attacks
to
the transport vehicles
of
the Republic of Kosovo and its citizens,
who are using the territory of the state of Serbia as transit to other countries of
Europe;
- Brutal violation of
the
agreement on freedom of movement
and
agreement
on
participation
to
regional organizations and initiatives
by
denying Kosovo's official
representatives (including
members
of parliament,
ministers,
and senior
representatives
of the
Kosovo
Government) to take
part
in events organized not only
in
Serbia;
- Kosovo sports federations and
artists
were deprived the right to take part
in
international contests organized in Serbia regardless of invitations and guarantees
from Serbian authorities proving in this
sense
direct involvement of politics in sports
and
culture
damaging
this
way their prospect
to qualify
to other
contests;
- Government of the Republic
of
Serbia in the latest International
Book
Fair
in
Belgrade
published
and promoted
boo.ks
that include
the
war
memories of
two
-
former
generals
convicted
of
war
crimes
by
the
ICTY. The
Tribunal
convicted
ex-
generals
Mr.
Nebopa.Pavkovic and
Mr.
Vladimir Lazarevic for atrocities
committed
by
Serb
troops
in Kosovo
during
the
1998-99
violence
that
left
over
10,000 people
dead
and
forced
nearly 1 million from their homes (UNHCR data). The court said
the
two officers were involved in a terror campaign against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
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 URU, Alm.del - 2018-19 (1. samling) - Bilag 53: Note verbale af 23. november 2018 fra Kosovos generalkonsulat i Strasbourg om forholdet mellem Kosovo og Serbien, Bosnien og Hercegovina
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that included murder, rape and forced deportations. Mr. Pavkovic is serving a 22-
year prison tenn while
Mr.
Lazarevic
has
returned
to
Serbia after
14
years in jail
following a state reception for
him
and
his
immediate involvement in public life;
Statements glorifying regime of
Mr.
Slobodan Mil~vic during the last visit of
President of the Republic of Serbia
Mr.
AJeksandarVuoc to the Republic of Kosovo.
In this regard economic reasons
in
the times of
new
regional approach and promotion
of
equal opportunities for businesses and services are equally important.
-
Many goods from Serbia and
Bosnia
and Herzegovina - especially food and
construction materials - are experiencing unfair trade practices
which
distorts
the
domestic market;
Kosovo's products face various non-tariff barriers in Serbia
and
Bosnia
and
Herzegovina by not being able to ace~ at markets of these two countries;
Serbian and Bosnian Herzegovinian authorities don't recognize Kosovo's
exporters
testing analysis and they
also
request for
the
re-evaluation of Kosovo
goods.
In
addition
to this,
especially Serbian authorities require for
the
certificate of
the
origin
of
goods
to be
issued
by
a
Serbian authority (they do not
recognize
the certificate of
origin issued
by
Ko.,ovo authorities);
Transit issue still remains
a
very serious barrier for the Kosovo companies while
importing from the
EU
countries and passing through Serbian
territory;
Kosovo
companies
cannot compete in public bids in Serbia and
Bosnia
and
Herzegovina, whereas there are more than hundred public bids that companies from
of these countries have won in Kosovo;
Kosovo can't develop its transportation industry and loses hundreds of jobs
because
Kosovo
trucks
aren't allowed
to
use Serbia as a transit to
the
EU
market;
Although it
is
a reached agreement between two parties in
Brussels
regarding
customs stamps, Serbian authorities still use parallel customs stamps in violation
with the rules set forth by
CEFf
A.
These
illegal
stamps are
used
with
the inscriptions
''CarinamicaPriJtina" that operates within Serbian Customs in Nish. This field, apart
from the
CEFI'A
agreement, is also regulated with the Brussels Agreement;
According
to !ht!
Brussels
Agreements, the parties h.ave agreed that in terms of
mutual registration of pharmaceutical products
will
be
issued stalu&-neutral
certificates for these producbl. This agreement would enable companies from both
countries
to
register
medicines
and medical equipment. Currently, in Kosovo,
a large
number of pharmaceutical products from Serbia have
been
registered, whereas in
Serbia, Kosovo producers are unable
to
register their products despite
the
reached
agreement;
The Integrated Border Management is one of the areas in which Serbia
has
completely failed
to
implement
the
Brus.~ls Agreement and
has
violated CEFTA
agreement. Serbia is
obliged to build permanent facilities in the border-crossing
points
with l<080vo. Consequently, they have not established effective control over
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 URU, Alm.del - 2018-19 (1. samling) - Bilag 53: Note verbale af 23. november 2018 fra Kosovos generalkonsulat i Strasbourg om forholdet mellem Kosovo og Serbien, Bosnien og Hercegovina
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the circulation of good and people.
This
has encouraged the Serbian smugglers of
-
goods to use other alternative roads;
,
.
Serbia has not yet redistributed sufficient customs staff at border crossmg pomts
with Kosovo, by especially hindering Kosovo's export towards Serbia even though it
has
pledged to do so in Brussels;
-
Last
but not the least, Kosovo loses 10 million Euros annually due
to
the non-
implementation of the energy agreement, signed in 2013 between representatives of
two countries with the facilitation of the EU. The same agreement was subsequently
confirmed by both Prime Ministers of Kosovo and Serbia in August
2015,
when they
had renegotiated and agreed
to
implement
it
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlights its official standing that the Republic of Kosovo
entered into dialogue with the neighbouring country - Serbia upon the EU mediation, full
support of
the
USA and other ally and partner countries in good
will
and full conviction for
improving the relations between the two countries and peoples
by
reaching a Legally
Binding Agreement, which should be concluded by mutual recognition between the two
countries and full and equal membership of
the
Republic of Kosovo to the United Nations
Organu.ation.
As
far as the Republic of Kosovo
is
concerned, the dialogue of good
will
and good faith
has
always been the only way of solving problems, building
the
trust between the two states and
two peoples, promoting long-term peace, strengthening regional stability and enhancing
prosperity for all peoples, but it cannot and should not be transformed into a mischievous
instrument, destructive mean and manipulating method from the neighbouring country, for
damaging and ruining the image of the new state in foreign relations and
in
parallel
threatening
the
national interests of
the
state and of the citizens of Kosovo.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo calls upon
the
international
community
in
order to react immediately and warn the neighbouring country
against
such
behaviours and actions, which are
in
full contradiction lo
the
expressed commibnent for
regional cooperation, commitment for integration to the EU and the expressed declarative
will for full normalisation of relations between
the
two countries.
The
Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo underlines that
the
decision
against Serbian and Bosnian Herzegovinian products is made in order to protect
the
interests of all citizens of the Republic of Kosovo and cannot be interpreted
as a
decisionagainst
the
interests of the Kosovan Serb community.
Republic of Kosovo remains completely committed
to
positive developments to
which
international community has tremendously invested since beginning of 1990s.
In
this
sense,
every constructive action from Republic of Serbia and Bomia and Herzegovina
will
be
immediately appreciated and will be adequately addressed by Kosovo institutions. We have
continuously contributed to economic, political and all other aspects of security and stability
of this
part
of the world and will continue to do so in the future as well as a state and as a
part
of
international structures.
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