LOCAL PRESS

Vucic, Pompeo meeting – Unfreezing of dialogue? (Blic/Novosti/Tanjug)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York on Tuesday. The State Department announced that the secretary of state will host Vucic over a working lunch starting at 12:30 a.m. local time. Media reports said that the meeting between Vucic and Pompeo would be essential, not just formal in nature, and that the topic would be Kosovo. The team of the President of Serbia say that he is completely ready for the meeting. “President Vucic has never prepared as thoroughly as he has for these New York meetings,” Vucic’s team told Blic. While in New York, Vucic will have other meetings, with Kosovo as the main topic of all of them. According to what the press has learned, Vucic will seek protection for the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija, but will insist, first and foremost, in talking with Pompeo about the US pressuring the authorities in Pristina to abolish taxes on goods from Serbia. Vucic will send a clear message to his interlocutor that without this, there will be no return to the negotiating table. “The President will demand from the greatest power in the world a balanced and fair approach to solving the Kosovo and Metohija crisis. After this visit, things will be much clearer when it comes to looking at the future of Serbia, especially in terms of US policy towards the southern Serbian province,” said Blic’s source. Pompeo sudden invitation to Vucic to visit speaks in favor of a thesis that the US is tackling the Kosovo problem and that it wants to play a key role in the process. Novosti also writes that today’s meeting could signal the beginning of a turnaround in US’ policy toward Belgrade and that Washington is taking the initiative in untangling the Kosovo knot, which could very quickly result in the revoking of Pristina’s taxes and a return to the dialogue. The meeting, apparently a result of direct diplomacy that has been ongoing for a while between Belgrade and Washington, comes at a time when ever louder messages are coming from the US that the decades-long conflict needs to be brought to an end, the newspaper writes.

Milivojevic: Key to compromise solution in US hands (Tanjug)

Tuseday’s New York meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reflects a US interest in resolving the Kosovo issue and the key to reviving the dialogue and finding a compromise solution is now in Washington’s hands, says Serbian diplomat Zoran Milivojevic. Right now, the EU is standing completely aside and it is unable to actively impact an untying of the Kosovo knot because it is focused on forming its institutions and preoccupied with the situation surrounding Brexit, Milivojevic told Tanjug Monday.

Countries that have a firm position on Kosovo, such as Germany, are also not in a position to be more actively involved until the political processes underway at EU level are over, he said.

“That is why it is no coincidence the US assessment right now is that it is time for it to take initiative and, through active efforts, create conditions not only for dialogue but also for a compromise solution that would certainly benefit the present administration and Trump ahead of the upcoming US elections next year,” Milivojevic noted.

Extraordinary cooperation between Serbia, China in all areas (RTS)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Belgrade Chen Bo expressed satisfaction today with the extraordinary cooperation between the two countries, both in the field of bilateral relations and multilateral issues. The opening of the Milos the Great highway, that is, the section of Corridor 11 from Obrenovac to Preljina, and the signing of a commercial contract with the Chinese company China Communications Construction Company for the construction of the section of the corridor from New Belgrade to Surcin, testify of an excellent cooperation. Dacic reiterated his appreciation for the continued support of the People’s Republic of China for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, and at the same time emphasized our country’s consistent support for the “one China” policy.

SzS no longer to take part in talks with ruling party (Beta)

The presidency of the Alliance for Serbia (SzS) announced that it would no longer take part in talks with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on the conditions for the next election. The opposition SzS has decided not to participate in the remaining two round tables, scheduled for 5 and 9 September, organized by the Open Society Foundation and the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. According to the SzS, that format of meetings is not yielding any results. “The SzS demonstrated responsibility toward the citizens at the previous round tables, by insisting on the 42 recommendations, provided by the expert team of the One Out of the Five Million protest, but the representatives of the authorities failed to show even a tiny bit of readiness to fulfill any of them,” said the opposition coalition. The SzS warned that the further deepening of the political crisis is the sole responsibility of Aleksandar Vucic and his regime.

REGIONAL PRESS

Cancelling both sessions agreed (Srna)

B&H Presidency members Zeljko Komsic, Milorad Dodik and Sefik Dzaferovic have agreed to cancel both sessions scheduled for Tuesday to vote on the Annual National Program (ANP) and candidate for B&H Council of Ministers chair-designate. “We couldn’t reach agreement and we decided to take off the ANP from the agenda. We decided to cancel the extraordinary session as well. This is the agreement of all three of us, my regrets,” said Komsic. He says they decided to postpone the extraordinary session as well where the chair-designate would be appointed because he and Dzaferovic would have voted against. “This would immediately mean that Mr. Zoran Tegelija would lose the post since we wouldn’t be able to propose him anymore, once he is refused by the B&H Presidency members,” said Komsic.

Komsic meets with Ambassadors Nelson and Field (Hayat/FTV/TV1)

Chairman of the B&H Presidency Zeljko Komsic met with US Ambassador Eric Nelson and UK Ambassador Matthew Field at the B&H Presidency building in Sarajevo on Monday. The meeting was held behind closed doors, due to which no media statements were made afterwards. The meeting took place ahead of Tuesday’s sessions of the B&H Presidency, which should discuss the adoption of the Annual National Program (ANP) for NATO and appointment of the B&H Council of Ministers (CoM) Chairman-designate. The US Embassy to B&H and the Cabinet of the B&H Presidency Chairman confirmed that Komsic and the Ambassadors discussed progress of B&H in the field of reforms and partnership of B&H with the EU and NATO. “During the meeting, participants discussed B&H’s path towards NATO and the EU, which are complementary processes, as well as the need to adopt the necessary reforms,” reads the press release issued by Komsic’s Office. In a statement of the US Embassy, it was confirmed the officials discussed formation of state authorities and emphasized that consensus must be reached in order for B&H to move forward.

EC allocates 10 million Euros for B&H for solving of migrant crisis (Al Jazeera)

The European Commission (EC) has allocated additional 10 million Euros to help B&H manage the migrant and refugee crisis. The money is intended for new temporary reception centers, their equipment and food for migrants and refugees. According to assessments of the B&H authorities, nearly 36,000 people have entered B&H since 2018 and there are currently around 7,500 migrants and refugees in the country. Most of them are accommodated in the area of Bihac and Velika Kladusa.

Nikoloski: Merkel and Orban’s policies are the future of VMRO-DPMNE and Macedonia (Republika)

Europe would not be united without the Western Balkan states, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Hungarian town of Sopron, where they both marked the 30th anniversary of the opening of the border between Austria and Hungary, considered as the beginning of the end of the Cold War. VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski commented on this meeting. Meeting of the two most powerful leaders in Europe Angela Merkel and Victor Orban. United for a strong Europe! The meeting took place in Sopron 30 years after the Pan-European picnic marking the beginning of the fall of the Iron Curtain and Communism. Merkel and Orban’s policies for strong economic development, clear Christian values, law and order, fighting corruption, responding to the challenges of illegal migration, a common defense policy under NATO and a more prosperous economy, education, health, social care under the EU are the future of VMRO DPMNE and Macedonia. A future that this Zaev government has neither concept nor vision nor people to recognize it, a future that VMRO DPMNE will work with its CDU and Fideszpartners and other members of the European People’s Party after winning the next early parliamentary elections, he wrote on Facebook.

DP protests in Shkodra, FRPD’s Chairman gets arrested (ADN)

Chairman of Shkodra Branch Youth Forum of the Democratic Party of Albania (FRPD) Arvid Bushati was arrested this Monday. Following Democratic Party’s (DP) protest outside the premises of ‘Luigj Gyrakuqi’ University Library, Bushati was arrested and remanded into custody, but former MP of DP Bardh Spahia said that State Police had no arrest warrant for the aforementioned Chairman. Spahia underlined that it was an unnecessary and illegal arrest.

“It was an unnecessary and illegal arrest. The police had no warrant to arrest him,” stated Spahia.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SOURCES

Merkel: ‘Truly united Europe’ includes Western Balkans (Politico, by Judith Mischke, 19 August 2019)

German chancellor reaffirms commitment to EU enlargement.

Europe will only be truly united when all the countries of the Western Balkans join the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. Merkel’s remarks represented a strong restatement of Berlin’s commitment to EU enlargement, an idea that is unpopular with some EU governments and many voters in Western Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron has struck a particularly skeptical note on enlargement in recent years. Merkel was speaking at an event in Hungary to mark the 30th anniversary of the “pan-European picnic” — an event regarded as a key moment in the fall of the Iron Curtain and in bringing Western and Eastern Europe together. But the chancellor said European unity would not be complete until the entire Western Balkans joins the EU. “If you look at things geostrategically and also look at the map then there will only be a truly united Europe with the states of the Western Balkans,” Merkel told reporters in the Hungarian town of Sopron. Six Western Balkan states are not EU members. Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania are official candidate countries for EU membership, while Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are classed as “potential candidates.”

Both Serbia and Montenegro have been engaged in membership talks for years. EU ministers decided in June to delay a decision on whether to start membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania until at least October, mainly due to resistance from France and the Netherlands.