• COVID-19: 57 new cases, four deaths (media)
• Government publishes four-year programme and legislative plan (media)
• Government to condition final agreement with UN seat and recognition from EU five (Koha)
• Aliu: Kosovo to introduce reciprocity measures towards Serbia (Klan)
• What status is being sought out for Orthodox Church in Kosovo? (Klan)
• FM Gervalla denies authoring governing plan posted on Instagram (media)
• Croatia to deploy 150 peacekeeping troops to Kosovo (media)
• Hoxhaj reacts to Serbia awarding Handke highest state honour (RTK)
• Kosovo Court Confirms Indictment in Oliver Ivanovic Murder Case (BIRN)

COVID-19: 57 new cases, four deaths (media)

Kosovo has recorded in the last 24 hours 57 new cases of COVID-19 and four deaths. At the same time, 346 recoveries have been confirmed over the same time period.

There are 6,561 active cases of coronavirus in Kosovo.

Media are reporting that as more vaccines are expected to arrive in Kosovo, the vaccination will expand as of today to people above 65 years of age.

Government publishes four-year programme and legislative plan (media)

The Government of Kosovo has published the governing programme covering a four-year period and the legislative programme for 2021.

The management of the COVID-19 pandemic has been listed as the immediate priority as is the economic recovery, Koha reports.

Klan Kosova reports that the programme also sets out plans to vaccinate 60 percent of the population by the end of the year but does not provide specific figures. The Government also plans to set up the Sovereign Fund whose exclusive responsibility will be to increase the value of the Trepca mine, that of the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK), the Post and Telecom of Kosovo. At the same time, the Privatisation Agency of Kosovo is set to be incorporated into an agency within the government of Kosovo.

The Government further stated that Kosovo is ready to recognise Serbia if it recognises Kosovo in return and if Belgrade authorities distance themselves from threats to Kosovo and political interference, including nationalist and oftentimes racial rhetoric. “With its American and European partners, the Republic of Kosovo will make all efforts to achieve a mutual recognition  between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, maintain normal relations based on the sound principle of reciprocity, and give an important contribution to peace, stability and long-term stability of the region.”

On visa liberalisation, the government said it will not be making the past mistakes by giving out wrong timelines. “With the help of our international partners we will work with the governments of countries that are still skeptical to achieve visa liberalisation for our citizens as soon as possible. At the same time, we will ask these countries that the citizens of our Republic not be held hostage to the debates of their domestic politics. Not only the freedom of movement of the citizens of Kosovo, but also the credibility of the EU institutions is at stake. Trust is needed, not discrimination.”

Government of Kosovo also pledges to strengthen international standing by integrating and joining international organisations, improving foreign service, lobbying strategy and diplomatic, cultural, and economic promotion. “We will submit request for membership of Kosovo to EU and NATO and we will also join the Adriatic Charter,” Telegrafi quotes the government programme.

Director of the EPIK Institute, Demush Shasha, said the government programme is adequate but that its implementation will be challenging. “Everything contained in these 57 pages is right, ideal, but immensely challenging,” he said.

Analyst Dardan Sejdiu said meanwhile that the governing programme is ‘poor’ and has ‘very little content’. “The biggest change that can be expected is in managerial quality and not in changing the governing paradigm,” he wrote on Facebook.

Koha Ditore reports that the legislative plan does not include the drafting of an anti-mafia law, namely the law for confiscation of unlawfully acquired wealth, but that the Ministry of Justice has said that this law has already been approved by the government which means its drafting is automatically enabled.

Government to condition final agreement with UN seat and recognition from EU five (Koha)

Koha reports that the goal of the Government of Kosovo is to condition the achievement of a final agreement with Serbia with a seat at the UN and recognition from the remaining five EU member states.

“The Government of Kosovo will take part in the dialogue with Serbia with clear principles and with the goal that the final agreement, apart from inter-state relations, will also include mutual recognition between the countries, recognition from the remaining five EU countries and guarantees for UN membership,” the draft programme of the Government states.

EU foreign policy spokesperson Peter Stano said that the focus of the dialogue is its conclusion in a comprehensive agreement and that everything else depends on the readiness of the two parties involved in the process. “Our role is not to comment on remarks from one side or the other,” he said, adding that the main priority is to achieve a successful conclusion of the dialogue.

Emir Abrashi from “DemokraciPlus” think tank said the Government of Kosovo should seek to secure other guarantees regarding visa liberalisation and progress in the European integration process. “The Government should focus on the process of dialogue in drafting a comprehensive strategy in cooperation with the opposition, the civil society and other experts and seriously approach the process of dialogue because we are at a point where our international relations are at a standstill due to dialogue,” he said.

Aliu: Kosovo to introduce reciprocity measures towards Serbia (Klan)

Kosovo’s Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure Liburn Aliu said that the Government of Kosovo will be introducing reciprocity measures towards Serbia but that the move will follow the drafting of an economic analysis which will look at Kosovo’s interests as well as of the members of the Albanian community in the Presevo Valley.

Aliu said that in many cases reciprocity measures have damaged the citizens of Presevo Valley and this is why a prior analysis is required. “Reciprocity will be a measure towards Serbia to enable a normal relation with it. There can be no normal relations with Serbia without introducing reciprocity and this is in our goal and in that of the Government which will timely decide on the matter. Reciprocity will definitely happen,” he told Klan Kosova.

What status is being sought out for Orthodox Church in Kosovo? (Klan)

Following the relaxation of pandemic measures by Serb Orthodox Church for religious sites in Kosovo, Klan Kosova reports that diplomatic circles are discussing ideas of the Church being granted extraterritorial status and that Germany is one of the countries supporting such a scenario.

Klan also reports that granting special status to the Orthodox Church is the compromise that the Kosovo side would be asked to agree to as part of the final agreement with Serbia.

Government of Kosovo officials have denied entering into such an arrangement while cultural heritage expert Sali Shoshi said that extraterritoriality for the Orthodox sites in Kosovo would make them isolated and completely inaccessible for the citizens of Kosovo. “This is a deprivation of a right to access culture,” he said.

FM Gervalla denies authoring governing plan posted on Instagram (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Donika Gervalla  has denied authorship of an alleged government programme posted on Instagram which puts the final agreement with Serbia at the top of a list of twenty identified priorities.

Gervalla said the account from which the document was published is not hers and that the police have been alerted. “A serious media outlet ought to look into the source of the news before publishing it,” she said in reference to those online media that decided to attribute the document to her.

RTK reported yesterday that Gervalla had put the first among them is the final agreement with Serbia followed by the plan to vaccinate 60% of citizens by the end of 2021, while the third point lists direct assistance to families who have lost their head of household from the coronavirus pandemic. Visa liberalisation is listed as the ninth measure of this programme.

Croatia to deploy 150 peacekeeping troops to Kosovo (media)

President of Croatia Zoran Milanovic has announced the deployment of about 150 peacekeeping troops to Kosovo as part of KFOR.

Milanovic said the decision should not be seen as provocation by Serbia. “We have a new era ahead of us. In few days’ time, 150 of our soldiers will be departing for Kosovo. This causes concern with our neighbours but there is no reason for this, this is no provocation, it is our right,” Milanovic was quoted by B92.

Hoxhaj reacts to Serbia awarding Handke highest state honour (RTK)

Acting leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Enver Hoxhaj has reacted to the decision of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to present one of the state’s highest honours to Peter Handke, an Austrian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019 who denies the genocide in Srebrenica.

“The @NobelPrize  laureate Peter Handke received awards from Serb ultranationalists & @avucic  as recognition of his denialism of the genocide in #Kosovo & #Bosnia. The rehabilitation of #Milosevic & his genocidal policies by Serbia show that #Serbia is the same: a genocidal state,” Hoxhaj tweeted.

Kosovo Court Confirms Indictment in Oliver Ivanovic Murder Case (BIRN)

Kosovo’s Court of Appeals confirmed the indictment of six people accused of involvement in the 2018 murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, sending the case to trial after a long delay.

The Court of Appeals in Pristina on Tuesday confirmed the third version of the indictment accusing six people of being part of an alleged organised criminal group that was responsible for the killing of Kosovo Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, clearing the way for the start of the trial.

The court decided that defendants Marko Rosic, Silvana Arsovic, Rade Basara, and Nedeljko Spasojevic should be tried as members of a joint criminal enterprise that murdered Ivanovic.

Two police officers, Dragisa Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic, are accused of tampering evidence in the case.

The Court of Appeals said in its ruling that Pristina Basic Court “has given sufficient reasons” that the indictment “contains sufficient evidence to support a well-founded suspicion that the accused are involved in the criminal offences with which they are charged”.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty at the initial trial hearing in February 2021.

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