 Thank you very much for your invitation. I was very humbled when I received the invitation to speak in front of such a distinguished crowd in an institute which has already established itself as one of the primary platforms of foreign policy in all of the European Union. We've had a very good visit yesterday and today in Ireland to met Minister Quinn of Education and Minister Creighton of Europe Affairs and spoke at length with a lot of Q&A at the committee, Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament here. And these are all good contacts, first ones officially between Kosovo and Ireland which we hope will bring fruitful, concrete, touchable cooperation. Ireland for Kosovois and Albanians hold a very special place. There are so many parallels in our history from the way of obtaining the independence to post-independence conflict between the political parties to the very spirit, I guess, of the people. We've had a very good contacts with Irish Army throughout the last decades since the war ended in 1999 and Irish soldiers have given a fundamental contribution to peace in Kosovo. They were a type of soldiers that didn't just stay at the barracks and played sonic play station for the six months but actually stayed with the community, talked to the community and participated actively in rebuilding efforts and making sure that the links between Ireland and Kosovo will be long-term, permanent and based on friendship. That being said, I will switch to the present moment where we are. Just yesterday, actually, Robert Cooper, Baroness Ashton's envoy for a dialogue was supposed to be in Pristina due to the snappy snowfall and we had one meter of snow record in last 60 years, last 24 hours. And our Prime Minister couldn't go back from Vienna to Kosovo. He also didn't make the trip, Mr. Cooper, but I think there was a video link talked last night with our Deputy Prime Minister and the envoy in a dialogue. We are now following, and I'll take the cue from the visit of Deputy Prime Minister Dinkic of Serbia here and what have happened the last six months. In December, EU has told Serbia that in order for the Serbia to get candid status, it has to comply with three conditions. This in our view are the bare-bone conditions, really the minimum of the minimum one can do to show friendship and dedication to European values and values of proper regional cooperation and good neighborly policies, which are, I guess, seen equanon for any kind of country trying to approach EU. One was that the Serbia should allow, should stop the barricades which have been erected in north during the summer by the what we call extremist parallel structures. We call extremist parallel structures not because we evaluate them so, but, you know, people wearing Radatkom Ladi shirts who is responsible for genocide in Srebrenica and who are blocking the roads claiming that they don't want any dialogue at all with Albanians and Albanian authorities. We don't look at them as a human rights activist, really. On the other hand, parallel structures are there called parallel because according to 1244 resolution adopted in 1999, which basically settled the war in Kosovo, all Serbian peasants, military, intelligence, police had to depart Kosovo in 1999. These forces were not friendly, they were not benign. They were there remaining from the years of Milosevic and we don't look at them as friendly contributors to peace, but rather hindrance to peace. And I think Chancellor Merkel's request for Serbia to dismantle these parallel structures was a focused request to basically slowly withdraw from possibility of influencing negatively the political landscape in Kosovo. Also, these structures are mostly supported by marginal political parties in Serbia, which are hardline radical and nationalist parties. They don't have any support in liberal landscape in Serbia. So this was one of the requests of EU. Second request was for Serbia to allow for all of EU lex to operate in Kosovo without any hindrance. The next is, as you know, justice and crime mission in Kosovo. It is set up there to help us slowly build up a system of justice sector, which will deal with organized crime and corruption, and we'll also deal with the more difficult cases of criminal activities in Kosovo. They cannot currently operate in North. We don't have any court there. Court has been burned and taken over in 1999 by nationalists in North and since then it's not really operating. So second request of EU was to enable EU lex to operate in the North of Kosovo as well. Third request was to allow for Kosovo to participate in regional fora to find a formula in a dialogue with us to see how we can participate in various regional initiatives, about 36 various organizations from free trade agreements like CEFTA to Black Sea organization to RCC, regional cooperation council. In all of these organizations we don't have a say. We don't have a cooperation or we're not members of. Only few of them, earlier we have been members through UNMIC, them signing status neutral application and we already took some meetings where we had a UN flag and it said UNMIC and not Kosovo formulas which really reflected past and not present situation. So now we are basically stuck at that moment in dialogue with Serbia and we have two months until March, Serbia has two months until March to show that it really wants to make a compromise and allow us to move forward. I'll tell you one thing, this is really bare bone minimum of requests. There are all sorts of other things which should have been put there in our, according to our opinion. For example, if you travel from Kosovo to Dublin, you cannot use a Serbian airspace because Serbia doesn't recognize Kosovo airspace. So Austrian airlines, British airways, Malibu, all the big major airlines which are operating from Airport de Pristina and Airport de Pristina is increasing 70% capacity for the last five years, so it's a growing airport. A lot of investments have been put in the last two years. We have to take airspace from Romania, Bulgaria and go around to arrive at North Europe. This is adding another 60 euros on every airfare. It's a really small, practical issue which is a very big importance. If you're a Kosovoer, you really couldn't travel through Serbia nor could you use Serbian roads to go to Hungary, for example, and it's a central highway. It connects east and west, simply because Serbia wouldn't accept our passports. And even non-recognizers like Spain and Greece and even our table tennis federation is traveling to China, which is also a non-recognizer with our passports. Hence, non-acceptance of our passports really didn't help making reconciliation and communication easier between people. There are other things, like energy sector. Serbia, a Serbian public company, has two years ago started billing in North electricity usage, claiming that the Kosovo electricity company is part of the Serbian electricity company, which is against all the treaties signed in the last five years on EU level and has been another request of EU towards Serbia. You cannot build in somebody's other country without license or regulation or paying taxes in that country. Telecom, if I take my mobile and if I go to Serbia, I cannot make any phone call because Serbia and telecom companies are banned by their own government to accept roaming agreements from our telecom companies. Now, our telecom companies are not Kosovo, they're really now slowly getting internationalized. Telecom Slovenia has brought one of the private ones, and the second public telecom is up for sale this year, possibly with torture telecom and some other companies interested to invest. But nevertheless, if you go to Serbia, you can make a phone call as a Kosovo because they don't accept any roaming agreements. These are all very practical issues, but they show that in Serbia there's still reluctance to go all the way to the end. And I'm not speaking about recognition of independence now, because that's a big, we understand, it's a huge step to take for Serbia at this present moment. But nevertheless, there are many smaller steps which can lead to normalization of situation, which are not currently being done. That being said, we are having now these three conditions and we hope that solutions will be found. On the question of participation in regional fora, we are now stuck at the name of Kosovo. Serbia says we will not accept Republic of Kosovo. And because of five EU non-recognizers, we cannot insist on our constitutional name. We will insist on equal participation at the table, egalité for all. We will insist on us being equal in voting and we will insist on us being having signatory powers in any kind of deals in regional basis. But we can compromise on the way, just like Macedonia had to compromise on the way, how you actually called on the paper of the country, due to the five non-recognizers. We have suggested to be Kosovo, with the small asterisks on the front page, it says, without prejudice to the status. Well, Serbia is insisting, it has to say, under 1244, unmic resolution, which for us is unacceptable. And not because we are against 1244, mind you, international court of justice deemed that our independence declaration was not against 1244, was actually in line with 1244. 1244 opened a process, a UN envoy, President Atissari, who later won Nobel for his efforts, was appointed. He worked based on the points of contact group. And one of the main points of contact group was nobody can block the final agreement or settlement. And certainly once we started the negotiations, we didn't start negotiations with the idea of not finishing them. Those were finished, Atissari came with a proposal, and proposal was accepted by almost all, basically, in international community, other than Russia, who had its own reasons, and Serbia, with its own reasons. So 1244 is not acceptable for us because Serbia is using it in our name only to add ambiguity and lack of clarity to the process. And when they go to their public opinion, they say, oh, we have to keep the 1244 in the name because that's the only thing that saves Kosovo from being independent. Well, Kosovo is independent. So you insisting on name which shows that Kosovo is not independent doesn't really add clarity. We need finality now in Kosovo. We have to close chapters and not leave chapters open in this book of relationships in Kosovo and Serbia. Hence, we have to make sure that any kind of solution are reflective of present moment and the future relationship and not of the past. Another reason why 1244 is not acceptable is because it's not the only resolution dealing with Kosovo in the last 12 months. We had UN General Assembly which has adopted a resolution which said and noted the opinion of ICJ and also started the negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia based on purely technical level. So General Assembly adopted the resolution to the great dislike of Minister Jeremic, who was fighting for another version which was not accepting the ICJ opinion. But if you're mentioning the human resolutions, why not mention the ones also which are positive or claim more forthcoming when it comes to the independence of Kosovo. So hopefully, we'll find the solution in the name. And frankly, Kosovo is not Serbia. I can Serbia membership in EU. I mean, closer any of us in Balkans is to EU. We support each other. If Serbia is in EU, that means because it has adopted fully European values and that must be good for Kosovo. And if Kosovo is closer to EU, that also shows that chapters in Balkans are slowly closing, that we are moving forward and we are now thinking about other issues than the ones from the past. So in principle, we wish that all and we want for all of us to be as close as Croatia now. We're very jealous of our neighbors who will enter the EU. And I think it has been a moment of us feeling proud and very positive and optimistic because closer the region gets closer, we get closer. But on the other hand, it's a little bit sad because you see how everybody is moving forward and we are stuck a little bit in the movement. Not status quo, but we are stuck at the moment in which we cannot move as fast as we want. And we are dependent on others to move forward. It's very unfortunate position that we are dependent on Serbia to move in order for us to have a stable and progressive political agenda. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic, of course, is very new. I mean, I think we have only three years in of our existence. We have a small diplomatic corps, about 30 embassies and consulates. Our Ambassador Hamiti has been just pointed to Dublin as well, covering it from London. And we had initially in the first three years of our existence a focus on bilateral recognitions. Since we could not go through Security Council, we had to go one by one at each country from Cardicom to Asia, from Central America to Africa to ask for recognitions. Not all countries are equally responsive or equally quick and prompt in their prioritization of Kosovo as top foreign policy priority. And obviously, it has taken some time for us to reach the number. But we are very happy. I think two nights ago Ghana recognized Kosovo as independent and sovereign. We are now at 86. And we are confident that we will very soon reach the number of half of UN members over half recognizing Kosovo as independent. That is a good benchmark because that will allow for more pressure. And we only have signs from some critical countries that once we pass the half threshold and most of the planet recognize Kosovo as independent, there will be another wave of recognitions from some specific countries. But this year, we have changed a little bit and lost year strategic approach following the elections of last year. And we are looking at how we can advance Kosovo's position on multilateral level, from Baku in Azerbaijan to Gibraltar from, and I would say UK, I guess, UK. And from Oslo to Istanbul, only 2 million people are not covered by European Court of Human Rights. And those are Kosovars. Kosovars cannot sue their own state, i.e. us, if we breach the human rights. Because we're not part to Council of Europe. And only members of Council of Europe can enjoy the benefits of protection by European Court of Human Rights. Hence, we have to upgrade and update and see how we can increase the interaction of Kosovo on multilateral forum and forums. We are also not a member of OSCE, another very important organization. Ireland is not cheering. And we have spoken yesterday at the ways how we can upgrade and increase the interaction with OSCE. But in OSCE, you have a veto, both Serbia and Russia have a veto, so we don't have any hope that we'll, in any time soon, achieve full membership. But Kosovo is already a member of World Bank and IMF. And I'll tell you one little detail. 106 countries have voted for Kosovo to become an independent, as independent country, member of IMF. So we already have a positive landscape of about 130, 40 countries which are having no problem with Kosovo being independent whatsoever. And we are also a member of World Bank and I think we are finishing the EBRD procedures this spring and we'll become a member of European Bank of Reconstruction and Development sooner rather than later. We are also looking at other possibilities in the multilateral organizations so we can reinforce. And Kosovo can become part of this intricate web of interactions. You are a state if you have, of course, control of the territory, if you exercise, if you have a parliament, but you also are a state in interactions with others. And this is what we need now to increase this interaction that we learn of our obligations that our people are able to access some of the benefits but also learn some of the instruments and mechanisms that are out there in the region to help Kosovo advance its open society, democracy and economy. Minister of Foreign Affairs also focused in public diplomacy as of last year. We started several successful projects with European Council of Foreign Relations last year. We did a very good conference in conference last year in October and November when we invited experts from around the world to participate and discuss the role of Turkey and Russia in Balkans vis-à-vis European integration. You know, what are the dynamics with the upcoming of Turkey and Russia as new players? Russia has, is building a South Stream pipeline and is increasingly using economic and political means to have a role in Balkans and obviously Serbia being a platform for activities. On the other hand, Turkey is being as assertive as ever with Turkish company being very keen to invest in Balkans. They have more tolerance for risky projects than the average mainstream European countries. So we had in Kosovo, we're now finishing the highway which was being constructed by Bechtel, the American construction company and Turkish company. I think in record time they're finishing it next year. They will connect Adriaticos via Kosovo to Serbia. It's one of the major infrastructure projects. Kosovo budget, by the way, is spending 40% of its total amount on infrastructure projects. It's very important. We are expanding and trying to really connect also in the road means to the rest of Balkans. Kosovo, I mean, since we are with Kosovo budget, we will also mention that Kosovo is the least indebted country in Europe. Our GDP to a ratio to debt is only 2.5%, I think, which is 20 times lower than what our constitution or laws allow. We have just issued the first bonds and they were sold out in a matter of few minutes to the market. We are experimenting. US Treasury is helping us set up the electronic trading system for the bond market and this is, I think, functioning well. Our deposits, loans, and all the other banking data are in upswing, 15% year-to-year basis, 2010, 2011. Projected GDP growth for this year, 5.5%, which was decreased from 6.5% due to taking into consideration the upcoming crisis that everybody talks about. But the economy is definitely expanding and it's the biggest expansion barred Turkey and Estonia in all of Europe. 6.5% growth is not bad for last year in the middle of the crisis. We have used the income and extra resources raised to do something which was very controversial last year and it basically meant that we had to change the IMF agreement that we entered into the standby agreement because we increased the salaries of all public sectors for 30% to 50%. This was unheard of. How can a government increase in times of austerity in Europe salaries of their employees for 30% or 50% for the teachers? But I think the problem- And we use the euro, by the way. And we use the euro. We in Montenegro are queer countries. We have a euro which we inherited because we used Deutsche Mark in 1999-2000. So we are two euro zone members which didn't have to fulfill the conditions that others are expected to. But probably because we are very small economies so we don't really play a big role in the euro market. But economies in upswing, if I would ask you to read the December report of IMF and Kosovo, it gives a full-fledged data on where are we now and we are optimistic. And all this was achieved without selling our family jewels. We have not sold our public, public, Lyon, Tenet telecom yet. If you look at all over Balkans, the only public telecom not sold yet is ours, Kosovo. We have not sold our mining rights and concessions. Kosovo is the third largest Lignite basin in all of European continent. We have Lignite for next 200 years if we go to up to 2,000 megawatt capacity. It's huge reserves. Lignite has been a growth element also in past for Kosovo in 70s and 80s. And we hope that we can, I think this year we should be finishing the tendering which quite a few international energy companies have been interested to build a new power plant which would substitute the old 60s, East German power plant. I know the carbon is not very popular in Europe but we have to do this to enable speedy change of technology from old Eastern German technology which is creating pollution about 70 times higher than European average to a more modern technology which will decrease the overall pollution even though it will use coal as a basis. We also have not sold any of the, we have not basically been yet focused of direct foreign investments in other fields. I think on 6th of February we'll have a big conference with investors in ski tourism. Kosovo is a mountainous area and I tell you, the Brezovice resort, I'm a tour skier but those who do ski, they say it's one of the most beautiful and most difficult landscape and most challenging for skiing all around Europe. There have been Italian, Austrian ski operators which are interested to invest. As I said, the airport has already been given to concession to airport in Lyon and Turkish company which have received the concession for 40 years and they are now increasing their capacity by 20 times of the terminals and the usage. Pristina Airport is already more frequented than all Balkan ones bar Belgrade, I think and this is because one third of our population lives abroad just like Irish, Armenians, Greeks in times of crisis a lot of Kosovo are left Kosovo. One third of population according to census of last year live across Europe. And this is also one more reason why we are dependent on Europe. Not a lot but some political parties in Kosovo which think that the path of Kosovo should be thinking on unification with Albania and not focusing on Europe and fixing the old injustice of pasts and London conference after the Balkan wars and all sorts of historic elements but we think that this is not the agenda of today. Agenda of Kosovo should be focused directly to EU because this is where the national concerns lie and this is where the national interests lie and this is where our cousins are. These are my aunt lives, our friends are far and basically Kosovo are dependent on communicating freely with Europe because we have so much of our diaspora outside. I think Albanian language is more spoken than Italian in Switzerland now and this is not a joke, this is actually a number. There are so many Kosovo wars in Switzerland. So we are now at a very interesting moment. We have one path which is very clear and very optimistic. If we do these deals with Serbia, if elections in Serbia bring a landscape which want to finish the old conflicts, then we have a chance for the first time in history of Balkans, for all Balkan countries to be on friendly terms with each other, to have democratic governments and to be focusing more on economy than past conflict. This is possible. I don't know if it's gonna be Mr. Tadić in his election or somebody else, but you can see the path. It's there, window is open. Will we use this window of opportunity? Unfortunately, it's not in our hands because we'll be engaged in dialogue. We'll work in dialogue and we'll never leave dialogue as a means of solving problems. On the other hand, we have the second backdoor which is more problematic and it's also visible that we regress if we try to keep status quo. If we don't move and if we don't shift the gears in both countries, this status quo will bring more aggravation. If Tadić cannot deliver to his own voters, if we cannot deliver to our own voters promises of more European integration, then other forces can come to power. Forces which have in past not shown to be very friendly to good neighborly policies. In Kosovo, those forces will be those who are not as keen on Europe as the political landscape or mainstream is. So that path is more darker and is there. I hope we don't enter that, but we can't lose more time. I was only 12 when Los Angeles came to power. In 1991, Serbian police came to schools and closed all of the schools in Albanian language and we went to head schooling. You know it from Irish history, but we went to underground schools. Ambassador was a professor and basically went to basements, to private houses to learn in our own language throughout 90s. We lost 10 years there. Unmik and UM came. UM was protectorate. And you know, protectors are good to keep the peace, but they're not good for long-term development. Bangladeshi and Irish and Albanian and American if they get together, they can make sure that we build the atmosphere of tolerance, but they will not work on a long-term three, five year education reforms or reforms of taxes or reforms of economy because that's not the nature of protectorates. So we lost another 10 years in development there. Hence we lost 20 decades, 20 years, two decades, not to our own fault. Now we cannot use another decade waiting for Serbia to change its heart and to realize that what happened in 1999 was so horrible, so unacceptable. It has changed so much the dynamics of Balkans that we cannot go back to the past. I mean, and especially since there's no real, I'm not a religious person, but repentance is an important word here. There's no real drive in Serbia to look at the situation in Kosovo in terms of misdeeds done to the population and asking for forgiveness really. We are very happy that Mr. Tadej has apologized to victims of Srebrenica for the 7,000 boys slaughtered by the Serbian forces in which, according to Hague Tribunal and ICJ, Serbian Army in Yugoslavia played a direct role, but they never apologized to Kosovo. And I mind you, if you look at the Hague Tribunal proceeding against Milutinovic case, when basically seven top generals and the leaders of Serbia were convicted of crimes in Kosovo, the sentence there was that the entire state was systematically engaged in eliminating Kosovars. One million people were on the run. You know that better than that made Ireland add and agree to the NATO intervention. These were, we cannot forget these things. That was a Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday. And it's good that we think of victims because they deserve to do so, but we can never forget the perpetrators who have done the crimes. We can never, we should not lose a sight of how did this thing start in our drive to find peace and reconciliation because peace and reconciliation without justice and transitional justice will not be final and will not be conducive to peace and friendly relations. What else is in Kosovo? I think it's a cute little country. We have problems in justice and organized crime, but these are not problems. Mind you, do not believe when people say that Kosovo is a dark hole of Europe in which Islamic radicals are trying to take over the Christian province and where people are harvesting organs and selling them left and right on the world market. These are propaganda cues intentionally given by the other side or elements of the other side trying to paint a picture of Kosovo not as a successful story, but as a failed state. If Kosovo is failed, that will mean that the entire drive to support independence was wrong, but we cannot enter those waters. If you look at the data, if you look at the statistics, of course, Pristina is the least capital with least street crime in all of Europe. You are safer in Pristina than in some streets of Dublin that I can guarantee you. You are safer in Pristina than in all other European capitals. Our crime rates are lower. Corruption is a horrible and serious challenge to all the Balkans. We've had a prime minister killed after Second World War by organized crime and war criminals, and that was in Serbia. We had in Bosnia challenges with corruption engulfing and slowing down the progress. And in Kosovo also, we have to make an environment in which those that steal money from the public go to jail. I entered politics hoping that, knowing that there is muck and mud, but we will have to clean that muck and mud. And I'm optimist that slowly we are building a system in which there will be equality for all and there will be a chance for pursuit of happiness and opportunities for every single Kosovo. Certainly there's more chance for pursuit of happiness now than ever before in our history, which has been driven by conflict more than we cared for. Dennis McShane, former European minister, wrote a book recently like Lost in November, Why Kosovo Still Matters? UK. UK is the European ministry. Why Kosovo Still Matters? Why Kosovo Still Matters in Europe is because Europe is now in an introspective phase and it has to really finish this introspection sooner rather than later from what I read from Davos to the rest of the capitals because Euro crisis and crisis of confidence in the markets and other political challenges have really put very difficult situation. And I think that the consensus overwhelming has been that we need more integration. We need more financial integration. We need for Europe to really have a more tight bonds as we move forward in this century in order to basically save and protect the weaker members of Europe. But if we are insisting on more integration on financial sectors, now this has to be projected with more integration on foreign policy. Now Kosovo is not recognized by five EU members. How can EU hope to have a unified foreign policy and an effective external action service if they cannot agree on Kosovo, which is the middle of Europe? How will we agree on China, on Palestine, on Africa, on major global problems if we cannot agree on a population of 1.8 million people who are sitting inside in the middle of European continent? I think it's a big challenge for Europe and it's a big test of European foreign policy. We are optimists that the five non-recognizers are slowly changing simply because reality is dawning. We have done quite a few strategic papers and researches on why they have not recognized us. We've spoken to some of these capitals. We've had a good visit recently from there here and from Kosovo to those capitals. Now we hope that some of the political changes in the landscape in these countries will be conducive to greater acceptance of Kosovo as independent country. Each one of the countries have their own reasons, obviously. Cyprus has its own historic conflict with Turkey and by far is on the range of non-recognition the furthest the field. Cyprus doesn't want to contact or communicate with us as much. I mean, they give declarations that they're for peace in Balkans, but so far we've had difficulties in approaching and increasing the interaction. On the other hand, we have all the others for us which are in greater or slower degree, increasing the interaction, organizing visits, and hopefully, sooner rather than later, we'll come to conclusion that Kosovo, if some of these countries fear from their own internal problems, their own internal minorities, that Kosovo is not an example nor a model, nor the reason to be feared for any kind of internal discussions. Kosovo is never an internal problem of Serbia. The moment when gregarious violations of human rights which went up to basically chasing half of the population outside the country and ethnically cleaning the country, the moment when that passed, I think, to the Security Council, Kosovo became a global problem, became a problem of United Nations and an entire global landscape and I don't think that there's any danger ever that a Slovak minority or Hungarian minority Slovakia will be attacked by their own state or their Catalan's or Basque's, really any shape or form be the victims of their own state, I think. We are talking about the EU members and democracies, so there is no parallel whatsoever. And mind you, when we declared independence, there was one point in which all of EU countries agreed and there was a declaration signed, the eve of the Declaration of Independence by the European Commission, which said that Kosovo is a sui generis case and is not really a model which has parallels to others in history or region. We've had a UN protectorate, there were resolutions, there was a path which was very specific and not really comparable or comparative to other problems in the world. What else is to be said? I think this is basically my short presentation, but I'll be very happy to take Q&As on any wide range of fields. I used to work with an energy sector in telecom as well as a private consultant PR field, so economic questions are also not out of bounds, but I will be more than happy to also talk about the present moment in dialogue and the challenges that we're facing as a government. Thank you very much. Thank you.