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11.06.2016
BalkanInsight

Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said during her visit to Kosovo that the border demarcation issue with Montenegro must be resolved this summer.

She spoke after several senior EU officials again pressed Kosovo to ratify the controversial border demarcation agreement as soon as possible.

“The debate on this matter in the assembly is relatively artificial,” Nuland told Kosovo's public broadcaster, RTK, on Sunday.

The Kosovo government has yet to present the bill on ratification of the agreement to the assembly, despite repeated calls from international officials for it to do so.

The border deal was not included in the agenda for last Thursday’s assembly session, either, where MPs from both the ruling coalition and the opposition voiced criticism of the lack of a real debate on the matter.

The EU in May reiterated that it will only approve visa liberalisation for Kosovo if Kosovo steps up efforts to tackle organised crime and corruption and ratifies the border agreement with Montenegro, signed between the two countries last August.

However, the deal is bitterly contested by Kosovo opposition parties and by residents of regions potentially affected by the new suggested border. They claim it robs Kosovo of several thousand hectares of land.

The assembly now has only a few weeks left to discuss and ratify the agreement with Montenegro before legislators take their yearly leave in August.

Nuland was visiting Kosovo as part of a wider tour that will take her to Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.
Erjone Popova BIRN Pristina
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