Lehne spoke positively of the Pristina-Belgrade negotiations on the decentralisation of Kosovo launched in Vienna but urged Pristina to step up its engagement so that minorities could live better. He said that negotiations on the future status of Kosovo should run parallel to the implementation of standards which the international community had set for the UN-administered province.
Submitting a report on the Vienna talks in the Kosovo Assembly today, Local Government Minister Lutfi Haziri said the negotiations were successful and conducive to a favourable climate for the settlement of the Kosovo status issue in line with the political will of citizens.
Haziri said the Kosovo delegation advocated the position that all Kosovo citizens, regardless of nationality, religion or ideology, should benefit from decentralisation.
"We oppose the existence of parallel institutions after the political status of Kosovo has been determined," he said, underlining that horizontal ties and ethnic borders were unacceptable in organising the authorities in Kosovo.
The Assembly session began with a recollection of the seventh anniversary of NATO air raids on the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which deputies said had marked the beginning of the end of "the grave crimes committed in Kosovo".
Deputies asked for greater engagement in shedding light on the fate of more than 2,000 Kosovo citizens listed as missing.