Kosovo parliament postpones vote on border demarcation

Kosovo Parliament has abandoned plans for organising an extraordinary session of Parliament on Sunday evening when MPs were expected to vote ratification of the border agreement with Montenegro.

Parliament of Kosovo issued a press release on Sunday announcing officially that the extraordinary session has been postponed indefinitely. Earlier on Sunday the Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, said that the session might be postponed for another day, Gazeta Express reports.

The controversial border deal with Montenegro is expected to be ratified after presidents of Kosovo and Montenegro, Hashim Thaci and Filip Vujanovic respectively, signed a joint declaration pledging to review the disputed parts of the Agreement signed in 2015 after Kosovo Parliament ratified the deal. Kosovo MPs are refusing to ratify the deal claiming that under current version of the Agreement Kosovo loses over 8000 hectares of land.

Signing of the new declaration opened the way for Kosovo to ratify the deal, and Kosovo political leaders during a meeting held on Friday at the EU Office in Kosovo reached a consensus to ratify border demarcation. Its ratification is one of the last criteria for Kosovo to get visa liberalisation with the EU Schengen area. The other condition is fighting organised crime and corruption.