Albanian Language Media:

• COVID – 19: 119 new cases in last 24 hours (media)
• 1,192 active COVID – 19 cases in Prishtina, 35–44 age group most affected (media)
• COVID – 19, Kosovo tested only 1.61 of the population (RTK)
• Von Cramon: Grenell wanted to bypass EU and Kurti’s government (media)
• EULEX chief praises PM Hoti for traveling economy class (media)
• Who are candidates for PDK leader if Veseli indictment is confirmed? (Express)
• Bytyci: Kadri Veseli is PDK leader, media speculations are ill-willed (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• 37 new cases of Covid-19 infection registered in Serb areas in Kosovo (Kosovo-online)
• In Gracanica 24 infected with Covid-19, results to come for fifteen more (KIM radio)
• Radovic: KP to control if persons positive on Covid-19 respect self-isolation measures (KoSSev)
• Vucic: Missing persons and internally displaced first topic of dialogue in Brussels (N1)
• Destinies of missing and displaced persons from Kosovo unresolved for 21 years (Tanjug)
• Brussels no longer can ignore reality: There is no solution of Kosovo issue without Russia (Sputnik)
• Jaksic: Negotiations in Brussels will not bring anything good to the Kosovo Serbs (KIM radio, Beta)
• Serbian Military Union official says protest coming against Defense Minister (N1)
• Mutiny within Serbia’s Socialists, main Vucic’s partners, its leader says (N1)
• Serbia’s NGO’s asks UN to react to police actions during anti-regime protests (N1, RFE)
• Vucic starts talks about Serbia’s new government, Albanians ask for four posts (FoNet, N1)

Opinion:

• Serbia-Kosovo deal: Can the EU succeed where Trump failed? (AlJazeera)
• Kosovo’s perplexing indictment and its effects (EWB)
• The EU Needs a New Balkan Strategy (Foreign Policy)

International:

• Trump Ex-Adviser Bolton Laments Lost Opportunity on Kosovo (Balkan Insight)

Humanitarian/Development:

• EU removes Serbia, Montenegro from travel-safe list (B92, Tanjug, N1)

Albanian Language Media

COVID – 19: 119 new cases in last 24 hours (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Health Armend Zemaj told a press conference in Prishtina today that 119 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the last 24 hours. 63 new cases are from the municipality of Prishtina. Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health Director, Naser Ramadani, said 92 patients have recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. 314 coronavirus patients are being treated in Kosovo’s health facilities, 13 of them are reported to be in critical condition.

1,192 active COVID – 19 cases in Prishtina, 35–44 age group most affected (media)

Prishtina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti said today that the fast spread of the coronavirus is highly concerning. He said that based on data from the Kosovo National Institute for Public Health and reports from the emergency staff, 1,629 persons in Prishtina have been infected with COVID – 19 since March 20, and that there are currently 1,192 active cases. 21 people have died from the virus in Prishtina. The 35 – 44 age group is the most affected from the virus.

COVID – 19, Kosovo tested only 1.61 of the population (RTK)

The first cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo, were confirmed on March 13, 2020. Since then the number tested is 28,640 people or only 1.61 percent of the total population of 1.78 million inhabitants.

From these tests,  5,118 were diagnosed positive, while 2,370 are already cured. 

51.58 percent of confirmed cases are active, while the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is 2.11 percent or 108 deaths.

Within this period, the most number of tests were done on July 12  (493 tests), the day which marked the highest number of the infected (216). The highest number of heals was on July 3, (117), and the highest number of fatalities was marked on July 5, (9). 

In terms of regions, Prishtina leads in the number of infected, followed by Mitrovica, in third place is Prizren, followed by Gjilan, Peja and Gjakova. 

In 100 thousand inhabitants, from the countries of the region, Kosovo is ranked second with 272 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infected, after Northern Macedonia which has 389 cases. Serbia ranks third with 210 cases, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with 209 cases, Montenegro with 194 cases, Albania with 120 cases and Croatia with 90 cases.

According to the Institute of Public Health, the highest prevalence of infected people comes from contact cases.

Von Cramon: Grenell wanted to bypass EU and Kurti’s government (media)

The rapporteur for Kosovo in the European Parliament, Viola von Cramon, called critical the approach of Ambassador Richard Grenell on the resumption of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

According to her, the Trump administration’s special envoy for dialogue, wanted to bypass the European Union and the former government, that of Kurti.

In an interview with the Kosova Press, she said Kosovars have long deserved visa liberalization.

“Mr. Grenell wanted to bypass the EU and the former democratic government (Kurti Government ). If you were to look at the timing and manner of his statements, he did not intend to help the EU at all. “I have said that if we want long-term stability in the region, we will also need the EU and the US, we cannot divide them and we must have a dialogue with the EU in the driver’s seat,” Cramon said.

The meeting between Kosovo and Serbia in the White House called by Grenell on June 27, was canceled, due to the filed accusation by the Special Prosecution against President Hashim Thaci.

Now the dialogue will continue in Brussels, tomorrow, where Kosovo will be represented by Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti.

Von Cramon assessed the political situation in Kosovo as very fragile, but according to this German diplomat, there is hope.

“I can say that I am happy to see that the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade is being resumed by the EU, and I know that Mr. Hoti is very committed to the success of the dialogue. It is difficult to evaluate their work after such a short time; especially  in Kosovo where many issues such as corruption, the rule of law, health or the education system, cannot be resolved quickly. These reforms require longer time and deeper changes, but I am full of hope that the Hoti Government will prove its readiness to act. In the current situation, we see almost very high numbers of COVID 19 cases,” she said.

EULEX chief praises PM Hoti for traveling economy class (media)

EULEX chief Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, congratulated through a post on Twitter the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, who flew today in economy class to Brussels.

“Hats off for #Kosovo Prime Minister @Avdullah Hoti who today travelled with the rest of us in economy class on the airplane Pristina to Vienna and on the airplane below from Vienna to Brussels. How many other Western Balkans’ Prime Ministers would save on tax payers money in such a way?” Wigemark wrote on Twitter.

Who are candidates for PDK leader if Veseli indictment is confirmed? (Express)

Citing unnamed sources, the news website reports that the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) is discussing possible candidates for the post of party leader if the indictment against party leader Kadri Veseli is confirmed. Sources said that Vlora Citaku, Hajredin Kuqi, Enver Hoxhaj and Memli Krasniqi are four candidates discussed within the PDK. Citaku earlier served as government and Kosovo’s Ambassador to the United States of America. Kuqi, Hoxhaj and Krasniqi also served as government ministers when the PDK was in power.

Bytyci: Kadri Veseli is PDK leader, media speculations are ill-willed (media)

Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) spokesman Avni Bytyci denied reports in some media that the PDK could get a new leader. “The Democratic Party of Kosovo has its president and political leader, Kadri Veseli. Ill-will speculations that the Democratic Party of Kosovo is discussing names to replace Veseli are completely untrue!” Bytyci said.

Serbian Language Media

37 new cases of Covid-19 infection registered in Serb areas in Kosovo (Kosovo-online)

37 new cases of Covid-19 infection were registered in the Serb-populated areas in Kosovo over the last 24 hours, epidemiologist Aleksandar Antonijevic said today in a press conference, Kosovo-online portal reports.

This brings the total number of infected persons in the Serb-populated areas since the beginning of pandemic to 450. He also said that since the outbreak of the pandemic a total of 2.560 persons have been tested.

Out of the 37 newly registered cases today 16 are in Mitrovica North, four in Zvecan, three in Zubin Potok and nine in Leposavic. Five cases were registered in the Serb-populated areas south of the Ibar River, one each in Kamenica, Prizren and Gnjilane, and two in Priluzje. 

During the latest wave of the pandemic, six persons have been cured, while four persons have passed away, three in the north and one person lived south of the Ibar River.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic a total of 163 cases were registered in Mitrovica North, 66 in Zvecan, 102 in Leposavic and 50 in Zubin Potok, 69 cases were registered in the Serb-populated areas south of the Ibar River.

Antonijevic also said that 75 patients who tested positive on Covid-19 are hospitalized at Clinical-Hospital Center in Mitrovica North, three are in Belgrade, two in Kragujevac and four in Nis. He added 203 persons are staying in house isolation, while today it would be known if additional 37 persons would need to go to the hospital or stay at home. 

Results for 65 persons are expected tomorrow, while today 70 more samples were sent for testing. 

In Gracanica 24 infected with Covid-19, results to come for fifteen more (KIM radio)

Today the press conference was held in Gracanica, the first one after April 17, after several days of pressure from the media and the civil sector, which demanded that the authorities at the Clinical Hospital Gracanica and the Crisis Staff inform the public about the epidemiological situation.

KIM radio reports that in the territory of central Kosovo, 24 people have been infected with the coronavirus, and results are awaited for another fifteen, said the director of the Gracanica Hospital, Bratislav Lazic at the press conference. 

Among the infected are 4 medical workers, including two doctors, but also officials in the Municipality of Gracanica. 

Mayor of Gracanica Srdjan Popovic says that the epidemiological situation in Gracanica “is not very great”.

KIM radio reports that director of Gracanica Hospital Bratislav Lazic has not been completely clear on the number of tested people. The radio reports that he first said that 39 patients were tested, of which 24 were confirmed and another 15 whose results are awaited, but later he said that 90 patients with symptoms characteristic of Covid-19 were tested. 

“More than 300 people whose symptoms indicated coronavirus were examined, and those who met the criteria for Covid-19 infection were tested. Three patients in a serious clinical condition were hospitalized, and three patients were transported to Nis hospital,” Lazic said and added that this epidemiological situation is a consequence of more casual behavior of the population.

Lazic says the number of patients infected with coronavirus is expected to grow in the next seven days. 

“In any case, we are ready, we have enough equipment and medicines. The supply is continuous, we have everything that is needed to take care of patients,” said Lazic, emphasizing that there are enough tests.

The president of the municipality of Gracanica Srdjan Popovic said that the Crisis Staff was implementing all obligations and that the activities of the inspection service and public services had been intensified.

Popovic confirmed that there were employees in the Municipality of Gracanica among the infected and that they, as well as their contacts, were isolated.  

Dr. Bratislav Lazic and the Mayor promised cooperation with the media and regular reporting on the epidemiological situation, reported KIM radio.

Radovic: KP to control if persons positive on Covid-19 respect self-isolation measures (KoSSev)

Kosovo police North region spokesperson Branislav Radovic sent an appeal to the citizens to adhere to preventive measures related to Covid-19, because the number of infected persons had increased, KoSSev portal reports.

He outlined details of the police operational plan saying the police would undertake measures related to maintaining public peace and order but also ensuring that the measures of the Kosovo government to curb pandemic were fully respected.

Preventive measures made by the responsible authorities including wearing protective masks, keeping physical distance and observing the movement ban in period from 9.00 p.m. to 5.00 a.m. must be respected, Radovic explained.

He particularly urged citizens positive on Covid-19 who are staying in self-isolation to respect the measures as recommended by health institutions.

“They must be in self-isolation because Kosovo police would control and observe all the cases in order to respect the procedure to curb pandemic”, Radovic emphasized.

He also said those violating the measures would be sanctioned.  

Vucic: Missing persons and internally displaced first topic of dialogue in Brussels (N1)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters in Belgrade on Wednesday that the first topics in negotiations with Pristina on normalization of relations in Brussels on Thursday would include missing persons and internally displaced people from Kosovo during the 1998-1999 war there and its aftermath, FoNet news agency reported. Second topic relates to the economy, and free flow of goods, services and capital. 

“We are ready; I see the Albanians are as well, according to their media. We’ll fight,” he said at the construction site of ‘Dedinje 2’ cardiovascular hospital.

Regarding his talks on forming a new Serbian government, Vucic said he had “correct dialogue with the Albanians (on Tuesday), as well as with Muamer Zukorilic’s list and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians on Wednesday.

He added he listened to their wishes and suggestions and would meet them in the next ten days and inform them who he would be his choice for the next prime minister.

Asked about the rise in the number of people infected with the coronavirus, Vucic blamed the anti-government rallies in Belgrade and the northern city of Novi Sad, adding those “unnecessary protests now show effects.”

He denied his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) held any big gathering during the election campaign, saying “some other parties did.” 

He also said that neither a soccer derby with the 20,000-strong audience nor the SNS victory celebration and June 21 general elections and other events caused a serious increase in the epidemic cases.

Destinies of missing and displaced persons from Kosovo unresolved for 21 years (Tanjug)

The issue of missing persons and displaced people from Kosovo would be the topic of tomorrow’s meeting in Brussels as it was announced, Tanjug news agency reports. Belgrade and Pristina delegations headed by President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Avduallah Hoti respectively are scheduled to meet tomorrow.

The agency added it is to expect that the talks about this issue won’t be easy, because the two sides disagree on precise number of displaced persons, their return in Kosovo or how to resolve the destinies of missing persons.

According to the data of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, which in 2000 in cooperation with the UN High Commissariat for Refugees (UNHCR) conducted a registry of internally displaced persons 187.129 persons were registered.  

In the period from 2000 to 2005 around 20.000 people more came to central Serbia from Kosovo and Metohija, so the number of internally displaced persons by the end of 2005 increased at 209.021. At the moment there are 196.995 internally displaced persons in Serbia, the data on the website of the Commissariat reads.  

Up to date around 28.500 people have returned to Kosovo, and out of this number 12.500 are Serbs. Due to security obstacles, slow pace in resolving the cases of usurped properties and poor economic situation, the number of returnees declines year by year, so in 2019 only 191 returnees were registered.

The Brussels agreement, including the agreement to establish the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities which should represent some sort of autonomy for the Serb community in Kosovo would create a potential for the return of displaced persons, however this topic of the agreement was never materialized and Pristina didn’t implement it.

The number of displaced persons is also difficult to assess because of the issues with personal documentations, which particularly affects the Roma population. There are assessments that several dozen of thousands people who left Kosovo due to the conflict remained unregistered.

There is no precise data either on how many Serbs live in Kosovo today, with assessments ranging from 100.000 to 130.000 people, the European Stability Initiative published in June 2004. Serbs have boycotted the census conducted in Kosovo in 2012.

According to the census conducted in 1991, 215.346 Serbs have lived in Kosovo.

Humanitarian Law Center: Data on missing persons

According to the Humanitarian Law Center since arrival of the international forces (KFOR) in Kosovo on June 12, 1999 until December 31, 2000 at least 932 non-Albanians went missing or disappeared under unclear circumstances. According to the data, kidnappings and disappearances of Serbs, Roma, Montenegrins and Bosniacs occurred daily in the period of June 12 to September 1, 1999. During this period 835 non-Albanians went missing or were kidnapped. The destinies of 593 persons, out of this number still remain unresolved. The missing persons were civilians mainly and it was also said that 257 non-Albanians out of the 539 were arrested either by KLA or individuals on its behalf. The information about their whereabouts was not available after that.

The research also said that during 1999 NATO bombing and during the conflict between the Serbian forces and KLA, several dozens of Serbian police and army members went missing and their destinies have not been resolved.

According to the Humanitarian Law Center from September 1, 1999 until end of December 2000, 97 non-Albanians went missing and destinies of 72 of them remain unresolved.

The research didn’t include cases of kidnappings and disappearances that occurred in 1998, and the cases after arrival of KFOR which Humanitarian Law Center did not manage to investigate independently, either because the witnesses were not available or information about incidents was incomplete.   

Brussels no longer can ignore reality: There is no solution of Kosovo issue without Russia (Sputnik)

Fact that the Russian Permanent Representative at the EU Vladimir Chizhov made public that he has met EU’s Special Envoy for Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak and discussed the Balkans and Kosovo issue indicates that Brussels no longer can ignore Moscow when it comes to the Kosovo process, former high-ranking Serbian diplomat Vladislav Jovanovic told Sputnjik portal.  

Jovanovic made these remarks regarding the Chizhov-Lajcak’s meeting after which Russia announced that the legal basis for resolving the Kosovo issue is UN SC Resolution 1244.

He also noted it was not a common practice that the meetings of Russian officials with the EU representatives were made public, instead only the government in Moscow is informed.

Brussels knows there is no solution for Kosovo without Russia

“This means Russia had an interest in making this conversation public. It showed Russia got intrigued over the latest political and diplomatic offensive Brussels and Washington were undertaking aiming at accelerating resolution of the Kosovo issue the way it suits them. Such an approach did not suit Russia, because it forces interests of the West and places Serbia in an unfavorable and defensive position”, Jovanovic explained.

“Russia recalled that it is unavoidable in resolving the Kosovo issue, as strategic partner of Serbia, but foremost as a permanent member of the UN SC, the body which has the final and the most important say in putting an end to the Kosovo issue. The EU took note of it, registered it publicly, and by the very same meeting formally acknowledged the importance of Russia in further resolution of the Kosovo issue”, he added.

Irrefutable fact that Resolution 1244 is basis

Another high-ranking retired Serbian diplomat Zoran Milivojevic said the meeting of Chizov and Lajcak was not a surprise, because it was clear that the status of Kosovo cannot be resolved without both the UN SC and Resolution 1244.

“The meeting is a confirmation of the thesis that the EU truly wants this time to resolve this issue, and within this context it comes as fully natural that Lajcak meets Russian representative in the EU. Russia did not actively participate in the attempts of the West to hastily resolve the Kosovo issue. However, this issue came to the agenda now and it became completely clear that without Russia this issue cannot be resolved”, Milivojevic explained.

He recalled that Russia already takes part in the process because it supports the stance of Serbia, consults with Belgrade and is well aware of all the developments.

“If there is a willingness in the West to resolve this issue in a manner that would suit the interests of all and in line with the international law – it gets certain that contacts on Brussels-Moscow and Washington relations must return on the agenda. In other words, that Russia follows the negotiations either directly or indirectly”, Milivojevic concluded.

Jaksic: Negotiations in Brussels will not bring anything good to the Kosovo Serbs (KIM radio, Beta)

Former councilor in the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica and member of the SDP CI Oliver Ivanovic, Marko Jaksic, says that he does not expect anything positive or good from the continuation of the dialogue in Brussels for the Serbs in Kosovo.

“We are always the subject of dialogue, although all the solutions reached concern our everyday life, and through all the victories in Brussels, we have lost all the specifics that we had until 2012, and which is why the Serbs are leaving en masse, both south and north of the Ibar River,” Jaksic told Beta news agency.

According to him “the attitudes of the Pristina side expressed at the previous video meeting are so rigid and maximalist that they are reminiscent of the attitudes that Milosevic had during the late 1990s regarding Kosovo: untouchable constitutional order, territorial integrity and sovereignty throughout Kosovo,” he said. 

Jaksic assesses that “it is not a disputable fact that a part of the political and intellectual elite in Pristina played the card of delaying with the agreement until the November elections in the USA and the defeat of the Trump administration, calculating that then everything will be on their side”. 

“Certainly, a strange attitude, because it is in their interest to reach an agreement as soon as possible, which would contain some kind of compromise, and which would also mean the recognition of truncated Kosovo by Serbia,” said Marko Jaksic. 

He underlines that “contrary to the views of Pristina, the views of Serbia are exclusively the views of only one person.” 

Jaksic says that Aleksandar Vucic is a key figure in reaching and implementing all agreements since 2013, and who is apparently ready to accept any agreement, counting that it would help him stay in power. 

“Vucic hopes that with the tolerance of the EU and leading countries in the West, he will be able to continue the collapse of institutions and the rule of law, suffocation of free media and settling accounts with political opponents through dirty tabloid campaigns or brutal beatings like the previous evenings in Belgrade,” says Jaksic.

According to him, “partially contradictory positions of the USA and Europe, as well as positions of Russia regarding the respect of Resolution 1244, show that the chances of reaching a quick and mutually acceptable solution are more than minimal, and that the return to the status quo is quite realistic.” 

“Probably, in the continuation of negotiations in Brussels, we will have talks on the long-agreed Community of Serbian Municipalities, which will be presented as the maximum at the end of this process, while President Vucic will probably accept Kosovo’s membership in the UN, without explicit recognition of independence,” concluded Marko Jaksic.

Serbian Military Union official says protest coming against Defense Minister (N1)

An official from the Serbian Military Union (VSS) told N1 that the union is preparing a public protest to express its dissatisfaction with Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin.

Antic said that the minister has harshly violated basic working rights. “There is a will to protest. The only obstacle is the fact that our people are engaged in several jobs: security at migrant camps, in COVID hospitals, the Ground Safety Zone (along the border of Kosovo) and on security detail for several buildings in Belgrade and other places as of a few days ago. That was someone’s goal to have as few of our people as possible at the protests,” he said.  

Antic said that Vulin never met with VSS officials since he became minister in 2017.  

Asked if he thinks Vulin will remain Defense Minister in the new government, he said that he doesn’t see who would benefit from “Vulin holding any public office” adding that he has “violated the law a number of times”.

See at: https://bit.ly/2OqfFrZ

Mutiny within Serbia’s Socialists, main Vucic’s partners, its leader says (N1)

The leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday there was ‘a mutiny within the party’s ranks,’ adding he would not allow anyone to separate him from President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS),

“The way to oust Vucic leads through the dismissal of Dacic,” he said.

His advisor Petar Skundric was relieved from the post after his son took part in the anti-regime protest in Belgrade, as was an SPS official in the central town of Cacak because her son published his photo from a rally.

Dacic condemned the statement by Novica Toncev, an SPS deputy leader, who said he would block a motorway if SPS lost another manager’s post. The discussion about another official, Goran Trivan, would follow after some of his associates took photos of themselves during the demonstrations.

The pro-government tabloids carefully followed every step made by the Socialists and described them as an attack on Vucic.”If the majority in the party wants to work against Vucic, I won’t take part in it and will not be the SPS leader anymore,” Dacic said.

He added he was convinced that the coalition with the SNS was in Serbia’s interest and was ready to give up all positions he held if his party was against Vucic.

Asked by an N1 reporter who was leading the SPS now, Vucic or he, Dacic did not reply, but according to his earlier statements, he was ready to dismiss everyone who was against SNS and Vucic.

“I asked President Vucic to send me everything, whatever he has about any one of my people who has made something stupid,” Dacic said.

Vucic started consultations about forming a new government and the talks with the SPS were scheduled for Friday, after meetings with the minority parties and the Patriotic Front SPAS, and ahead of discussion with his SNS on Monday.

See at: https://bit.ly/390agkM

Serbia’s NGO’s asks UN to react to police actions during anti-regime protests (N1, RFE)

Several NGOs demanded from Nils Mezer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to react to the police actions during daily anti-government demonstrations across Serbia, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported late on Tuesday.

The reason for that urgent appeal sent on July 14, was “excessive, unjustified and illegal force,” as well “the lack of the state institutions’ reaction”  during demonstrations, RFE said.

The letter sent to Mezer contained 13 documented cases of police brutality over the demonstrators during protests that started on July 7 in Belgrade after President Aleksandar Vucic had announced that a new curfew might be introduced due to the worsening situation with the coronavirus epidemic.

See at: https://bit.ly/3h1E2Zi

Vucic starts talks about Serbia’s new government, Albanians ask for four posts (FoNet, N1)

Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s President, start on Tuesday first consultations about forming a new government with the representatives of the “Albanian Democratic Alternative – United Valley” and the leader of its election list Shaip Kamberi, the FoNet news agency reported.

Earlier, the Bosniak minority Party of Democratic Action (SDA) from the southwestern Sandzak region refused to take part in talks with Vucic saying the June 21 elections were irregular.

The coalition of Albanian parties demanded a post of minister of local administration, a state secretary in the Education. Ministry, an assistant minister of economy, and the head of Government’s Coordinating Body for three municipalities with an ethnic Albanian majority.

See at: https://bit.ly/38WdwxT

Opinion

Serbia-Kosovo deal: Can the EU succeed where Trump failed? (AlJazeera)

After Trump’s failure to tackle the Serbia-Kosovo issue, the EU has taken back the lead. But it cannot do it alone.

It would not be a stretch to say that Europe has now given up on US President Donald Trump. Not that long ago, leaders across the pond held some hope that they could work with the US on issues of common interest. No more.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refusal to attend a G7 summit at Camp David, originally scheduled for June 10-12, speaks volumes of the poor state of transatlantic relations.

The get-together was postponed until September, ostensibly because of the coronavirus pandemic. But with a presidential election due in short order, it is highly unlikely that Merkel or French President Emmanuel Macron would be going there with high expectations.

Though they are understandably keeping quiet, in private they may well be rooting for a Trump defeat in November.

Meanwhile, the gap between Europeans and the current administration in Washington is becoming conspicuous in an unlikeliest of places: Kosovo.

See at: https://bit.ly/3j0C6SV

Kosovo’s perplexing indictment and its effects (EWB)

The announcement, on 24 June, that Kosovo’s president is indicted for war crimes sank a White House summit on a deal between the country and its former mother state, Serbia. Both events are both less and more surprising than one might think.

In 2010 a Council of Europe report wrote that the evidence of the crimes committed by leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998–2000 is ‘overwhelming’, and largely known since the facts. Quoting Western intelligence papers, the report describes Kosovo’s president as ‘the most dangerous of the KLA’s “criminal bosses”’. He and other suspects became the main pillar of the political elite that rules the country since that war. They evaded justice, the report explains, by reason of ‘two shocking dynamics’: the elimination and intimidation of witnesses, and the ‘faltering political will on the part of the international community to effectively prosecute them’.

In 2011 the EU ordered an investigation on the matters discussed in the report, which in 2014 reached conclusions ‘largely consistent’ with it. In particular, the investigators ‘found compelling evidence to file an indictment against certain former senior officials of the [KLA]’. The EU then pressed Kosovo to establish a court to hear these charges. It is before this court that the indictment is now being discussed.

This is a peculiar court. Regulated by Kosovo law but led and staffed by the EU, it is an ad hoc court, set up to deal with those crimes and only with them. It is a ‘special’ court. Such courts are explicitly prohibited by the Dutch, German and Italian constitutions, for the principle – affirmed also by the European Convention on Human Rights – is that one should be judged by courts identified ex ante on the basis of general criteria equal for all, not by courts established ex post for a certain crime or a certain suspect.

See at: https://bit.ly/3ewGsgO

The EU Needs a New Balkan Strategy (Foreign Policy)

Russian and Chinese influence in Serbia is growing. The EU needs to step up its game to avoid being sidelined.

On June 27, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was due to meet his Kosovar counterpart, Hashim Thaci, at the White House for talks brokered by U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell. The aim of this summit was to normalize relations between their two countries, which have been locked in a state of frozen conflict ever since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

But then, just three days before the planned meeting in Washington, the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague announced that it had filed a 10-count indictment with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers charging Thaci, a former guerilla leader, and several of his associates with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) forces against civilians, including ethnic Serbs, during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

See at: https://bit.ly/2ZsrAMo

International

Trump Ex-Adviser Bolton Laments Lost Opportunity on Kosovo (Balkan Insight)

Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, told BIRN that Serbia and Kosovo may have retreated from a point where a deal to settle relations was close. The fears associated with a potential land swap are “exaggerated”, he said, and revealed that “serious” Europeans were also looking at the idea.

BIRN interviewed Bolton on Friday, July 10, following publication in late June of his explosive book – The Room Where it Happened – concerning his time in the Trump White House.

BIRN: The Kosovo-Serbia dialogue was supposed to restart on Sunday but that has been postponed because of July 10 summit in Paris. Do you think that dialogue will produce any results?

Bolton: Certainly it looks as though the parties have withdrawn from positions where there was some greater prospect that they could bridge their differences and it may be that we had an opportunity to see the issues addressed and that we’ve lost it now, that’s possible as well.

But I do think that the time has made it clear to both sides that they are not going to make progress in their own respective spheres until these issues are resolved satisfactorily.

BIRN: You said that the idea of a land swap [between Serbia and Kosovo] was acceptable to the US administration.

The question that was put to me and the answer I gave was the administration’s policy – that if the parties themselves felt that as part of an overall solution that adjustments to territory made sense, that the United States would support that. And I think that policy is a sound approach.

[Former US Secretary of State] Jim Baker once said about the Israeli-Arab dispute: we can’t want peace more than the parties themselves. If Kosovo and Serbia were to agree to land swaps as part of an overall solution, really are outsiders, whether from the United States or elsewhere, in Europe, going to tell them that the solution isn’t satisfactory? I don’t think so.

See at: https://bit.ly/2B3CPBy

Humanitarian/Development

EU removes Serbia, Montenegro from travel-safe list (B92, Tanjug, N1)

Ambassadors of 27 EU member states removed Serbia from the list of safe countries to travel through. That will happen for at least two weeks, Tanjug’s correspondent from Brussels reported.

Serbia, together with Montenegro, was removed from the list of the EU Council due to the worsened epidemiological situation in the country.

It is added that the possibility of opening the external borders of the EU for the citizens of Serbia will be discussed again in two weeks.

The removal of Serbia-Montenegro from the list was proposed late last night by Germany, which holds the EU presidency, and the proposal was supported by several countries, including France, Spain and the Netherlands, officials told Reuters.

The list, updated by the EU-27 ambassadors, is a recommendation for member states when deciding which third countries their borders will be open to.

The EU Council emphasizes that the recommendation “has no legal character”, and that the member states are “responsible for the implementation of the content of the recommendation”.

See at: https://bit.ly/3evufJl