Belgrade Media Report 18 April
LOCAL PRESS
• Brnabic: Abolishing taxes is minimum for resuming talks with Pristina (Beta/RTS)
• Dacic: Vucic to be pressured, EU didn’t know about Berlin meeting (TV Pink/Tanjug/B92)
• New victims of bombardment even two decades on (RTS)
• Press Statement of the Secretary General of the Serbian parliament (Tanjug)
REGIONAL PRESS
Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Covic, Dodik and Izetbegovic agree in principle distribution of ministerial posts (Hayat)
• If there is no agreement regarding NATO accession, DF will not be part of authorities (TV1)
• OHR delegation meets with RS leadership in Banja Luka (TV1)
• Dodik: There won’t be another war in B&H (Srna/RTRS)
• B&H MFA to send protest note to Croatia due to activities of SOA re B&H citizens; Dodik says B&H Armed Forces will not take part in preventing entry of migrants to B&H (N1)
Montenegro
• New protests in Saturday, we were gaining strength (RTCG)
Republic of North Macedonia
• The presidential threshold must be re-examined (Nezavisen vesnik/TV21)
• Companies asking for joint customs services between Macedonia, Albania and Serbia (Meta)
Albania
• The issue of visa return to Albania (ADN)
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SOURCES
• Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, (Russian Foreign Ministry)
• Media on Berlin: Red card for border change, proposition of “dual sovereignty” (European Western Balkans)
Serbs from Kosovo reach Belgrade on foot ahead of rally (B92, Tanjug)
President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday received a group of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, who last Friday departed from northern Kosovo. They will tomorrow attend a rally in the capital, organized as part of Vucic’s “Future of Serbia” campaign. Vucic received the group in the Presidency, where they came carrying a banner they took with […]
Read More →Haradinaj reiterates: Agreement with Serbia in current borders (media)
Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj reiterated his position that an agreement with Serbia should be reached in the current borders, most news websites report. Haradinaj told a press conference in Pristina today: “we notice that there is movement in positions and statements. This is not final, and I think it is a new energy on […]
Read More →Burim Ramadani appointed national coordinator for NATO membership (media)
Deputy Minister of the Kosovo Security Force Burim Ramadani has been appointed by the Government of Kosovo to the post of National Coordinator for NATO Integration and Membership.
Read More →Haradinaj: There will be no talks on Kosovo’s territory in Berlin (media)
Several news websites quote Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj as saying that there will be no discussions about Kosovo’s territory at the upcoming Berlim Summit on April 29. “The Berlin Summit is a good opportunity and a joint table for the Western Balkans. Kosovo has its European perspective. Europe has a debt to Kosovo and […]
Read More →Kosovo pledges €20,000 for Notre-Dame renovation (media)
The Kosovo Government has pledged €20,000 for the renovation of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. The funds will be allocated from the category of expenditures. Koha notes that Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s decision to allocate funds for the renovation has triggered many negative reactions in Kosovo. Haradinaj said on Wednesday that the financial to the […]
Read More →Op-ed: A new campaign for dividing Kosovo (Koha)
Columnist Enver Robelli writes that the statement of European Commissioner Johannes Hahn that possible land swap between Kosovo and Serbia could be discussed ahead of the 29 April Berlin summit of Western Balkans leaders, is not ‘coincidental’. “Ahead of the summit called by German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Hahn wants to dig out from the hole […]
Read More →Government allocates €471.000 for extraordinary local elections in the north (media)
Several news websites report that the Kosovo Government decided in today’s meeting to allocate €471,000 for the extraordinary elections in the four northern municipalities of Mitrovica North, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci announced the snap elections for May 19.
Read More →Prizren debates interethnic and religious tolerance (Prishtina Insight)
A public forum in one of Kosovo’s most religiously diverse cities, Prizren, was held as part of the #debatpernime series, bringing together religious officials, experts, politicians and the public to discuss interethnic and religious tolerance. See at: https://bit.ly/2VQO99i
Read More →Case of two murdered UNMIK police officers in 2004 on retrial: two more suspects accused (Klan Kosova)
The Pristina Basic Court has started a hearing on the murder case of two UNMIK police officers in 2004. Shkumbin Mehmeti was the only one sentenced for this case, but the Special Prosecution has filed further testimonies, on two new accused: Alban Dezdari and Bedri Krasniqi, informs Klan Kosova. Prosecutor Bukurije Xhonbalaj said that they […]
Read More →Vecernje Novosti: Elections in Serbia to be called on 9th May, voting in June?
Another option “in the game” is to go to the polls on 30th June, and in this case the elections would be called on 16th May, writes today Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti. If Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) goes with a decision to call the extraordinary parliamentary elections, most likely they will be called on […]
Read More →Families of Albanian ISIS Fighters Face Long Road Home (Balkan Insight)
BIRN has identified at least 85 children born to ethnic Albanian women from Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia under the Islamic State, now stuck in a Kurdish-run camp in Syria. Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a notorious Islamic State fighter from Kosovo who declared himself the commander of Albanians fighting for the militant group in Syria and Iraq, […]
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