Today was held the meeting of the National Council for European Integration, organized by the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga. At the meeting, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, took part the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, Prof. Dr. Hajredin Kuçi.

In his address to the participants, Deputy Prime Minister Kuçi said: "Let me express the readiness of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo for the European Union integration process with a special focus in two directions in 2013 – meeting the criteria related to the Stabilisation and Association agreement and the criteria related to the visa liberalization process. Both of these criteria represent priorities for the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, and I can say that the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, respectively our institutions have already met the short-term criteria, and we are now focused on the med-criteria and expect to get a positive result.

In this regard, except the issuance of the Law that has to do with the protection of witnesses, we have also issued other laws such as the Law on confiscation of illegally obtained property, the anti-corruption strategy etc, therefore, I thank the Assembly of Kosovo and other parties for their support. We have also issued the administrative instructions or the secondary legislation for the implementation of these laws. Moreover, let me point out that the Kosovo Police has intensified its commitment in the fight against organized crime. Only during the second half of 2012 it has made over 329 investigations, over 120 police operations and over 382 arrested persons. Kosovo Police is also committed to fighting human trafficking and drug trafficking, and it can be concluded that it has reached tangible results and now we have over 392 suspects, 249 arrested and 179 convicted persons from the second half of 2012. We have increased the international cooperation in the field of investigation. In particular we have had a special cooperation with EULEX, including the requirement for maintaining the competences in the Special Prosecutor's Office, as required by the Stabilisation and Association process.

We have signed a compact agreement with EULEX in this direction and we already have specific commitments on EULEX monitoring the recruitment processes of senior appointments, in particular in the Kosovo Correctional Service, the Kosovo Police, as well as for judges and prosecutors. Kosovo Judicial Council and Prosecutorial Council are present and let me emphasize that they have accomplished their obligations in the appointment of judges and prosecutors, at the start of the new organizational structure as well as in the application of laws, in particular the two codes, the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. We have made commitments in the area of public administration reform and on 7th December 2012 we have also approved the secondary legislation.

The protection of minorities has been one of our priorities, and now we have a committee to monitor the implementation together with the Ambassador of Greece and some other relevant ministers who take care of the cultural heritage in Kosovo, in particular the Serbian one. In the process of visa liberalization, concrete steps have been taken in meeting the criteria of the roadmap and 68 out of 95 are left and we expect that there will be concrete commitments in their implementation by June this year. Immigration policy and visa controls are processes that are already in place in the Republic of Kosovo and this will be respected in particular by achieving success until June or until the meeting of the Council of Ministers. The Government of the Republic of Kosovo awaits the fulfilment of tasks and knows that there are tasks on which work must be done together with the other local actors, but also expects a positive result in the integration process of Kosovo into the European Union, regardless the fact that there are some states that have not yet recognized Kosovo as a state, but supported the integration process and I believe that we will have a two-way journey in the process."