• COVID-19: 385 new cases, seven deaths (media)
• Health minister warns of new measures next week (Prishtina Insight)
• Covid vaccine to reach the Balkans the same time as the EU (Koha)
• LDK’s Abrashi: First president then elections (media)
• Vucic: While I am president, Serbia will not recognise Kosovo (media)
• Kosovo FM Haradinaj-Stublla reacts to Vucic’s statement (media)
• Leader of Kosovo War Veterans Pleads Innocent at Hague Court (Balkan Insight)
• Kadri Veseli’s family establishes fund for his defence (Klan)
• Remains of 2 war missing Kosovars found (AP)

COVID-19: 385 new cases, seven deaths (media)

385 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 351 persons have recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 12,594 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Health minister warns of new measures next week (Prishtina Insight)

At a press conference on Friday, health minister Armend Zemaj stated that new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus will be brought in next week.

“There will be no easing of the measures,” Zemaj stated. “We can call it tightening of the measures but we are being careful and analysing the situation to see where measures can be eased and where they can be tightened.”

Kosovo is currently operating a three-tier system, in which different measures apply to different municipalities depending on the epidemiological system. However, Zemaj stated that the new measures will apply at the “national level.”

The new classification of municipalities was also revealed at the press conference. Prishtina is still in the red zone, which is subject to the strictest measures, including a 19:00 curfew and a ban on entry and exits to the municipality after this time. Other municipalities in the red zone include Fushe Kosove, Obilic, Podujevo and North and South Mitrovica.

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Covid vaccine to reach the Balkans the same time as the EU (Koha)

European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi is reported to have confirmed that the Western Balkans countries will receive coronavirus vaccine at the same time as the European Union member states.

The distribution of the vaccines in the Balkans is expected to begin on 27 December.

“Good coordination call with #WesternBalkans foreign&Europe ministers on latest in #COVID19 crisis. We are working to ensure that #COVID19 vaccines will be made available to the #WesternBalkans in a timely way, as they start to be deployed in the #EU. We are setting aside funds in support & coordinating arrangements. In the pandemic we stand by #WesternBalkans, whose future is in the #EU. And we stand by our partners in the neighbourhood and beyond – we can only overcome the pandemic together,” Varhehyi tweeted.

LDK’s Abrashi: First president then elections (media)

Arban Abrashi, secretary of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said that the party is ready to support a president that the political parties agree to and that this should be treated as a matter of urgency to avoid Kosovo entering a constitutional and legal crisis.

“LDK leader Isa Mustafa is in regular contact with leaders of political parties and I believe that he will be the best judge of when to call a roundtable or when there are rapprochements on the election of the president. What we can say as LDK is that we aim to reach such an agreement or any decision as soon as possible so that there is none, elections and be organised and certified during the mandate of the acting president and not exceed this timeframe as this would result in constitutional and legal uncertainties,” Abrashi told Ekonomia Online.

“Our calculations are that the president ought to be elected in January and not drag into February. Therefore, our goal is to have a roundtable and find a solution. And even if the country has to head to elections, we can go to the polls afterwards.”

Vucic: While I am president, Serbia will not recognise Kosovo (media)

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said that for as long as he is in the post, Serbia will not recognise Kosovo.

Speaking at a show on Belgrade’s TV Prva, Vucic said that Belgrade will most certainly not recognize Kosovo by 2022 when the next presidential elections are expected to take place. “We have many important issues but until April of 2022 when presidential elections are held this will not happen and beyond this, the people will be the ones to decide,” he is quoted as saying.

Vucic also said the United States would not be changing position on Kosovo, no matter of what administration is in power.

Kosovo FM Haradinaj-Stublla reacts to Vucic’s statement (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla reacted to the statement of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic that there would be no recognition of Kosovo for as long as he is in office.

“Statement that #Serbia will not recognise #Kosovo until April’22 raises two mutually exclusive hypotheses: a) Serbia excludes itself from EU facilitated dialogue until 2022; OR b) The facilitator believes that ‘full normalisation’ doesn’t necessarily mean mutual recognition,” she wrote on Twitter.

Leader of Kosovo War Veterans Pleads Innocent at Hague Court (Balkan Insight)

The leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans’ Organisation, Hysni Gucati, who is accused of obstructing justice and intimidating witnesses, entered a non-guilty plea at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

“I plead not guilty and I am completely not guilty,” Hysni Gucati, the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans’ Organisation, told the pre-trial judge during his initial appearance at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Friday.

Gucati and the KLA War Veterans’ Organisation’s deputy leader, Nasim Haradinaj – who made his initial appearance in court earlier on Friday, were charged with obstructing justice and intimidating witnesses after batches of confidential case files from the Specialist Chambers were leaked to them, and both men urged media to publish the material.

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Kadri Veseli’s family establishes fund for his defence (Klan)

A family member of the former KLA leader Kadri Veseli has set up a fund for raising money to pay for his defence at the Specialist Chambers in the Hague.

Hysni Veseli said the initiative to set up the fund is aimed at defending the KLA war and the money will be raised in a well-organised and transparent manner.

A similar fund has recently also been established for former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci.

Remains of 2 war missing Kosovars found (AP)

Kosovo authorities on Friday said they found remains of two people believed to be ethnic Albanians missing from the 1998-1999 war.

The Governmental Commission on Missing Persons said that following information from citizens they checked the public cemeteries in the western cities of Rahovec and Prizren, and found one body in each.

The exhumed remains will be checked for DNA identification and then handed over to their families, a statement said.

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