• COVID-19: 13 new cases, no deaths (media)
• Kurti and Vucic clash in first Brussels meeting (Prishtina Insight)
• Bislimi: Churches issue was neither raised nor will it be discussed (Koha)
• PDK accuses Kurti of breaking promise on dialogue with Serbia (Koha/Klan)
• Haradinaj to Kurti: Withdraw from many points, seek only recognition (RTV21)
• Haziri: There were no negotiations, only a meeting (Klan Kosova)
• Presevo Valley Albanians request from Kurti to be part of the dialogue (media)
• Konjufca: Serbia using double standards in the dialogue process (media)
• EU, U.S. at Brussels Summit make commitment to Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (RTK)
• Haradinaj: Vjosa Osmani is a servant of Kurti (Zeri)
• Abrashi: Idea of Association won’t be implemented, it would be fatal (media)
• President Osmani extends technical mandate of EULEX (Koha)

COVID-19: 13 new cases, no deaths (media)

Kosovo recorded 13 new cases of COVID-19 and no deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. 119 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 252 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Kurti and Vucic clash in first Brussels meeting (Prishtina Insight)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met in Brussels on Tuesday, in what EU Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak has labelled as “not an easy meeting.”

Lajcak described the first EU-facilitated meeting between Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister as “a very open and frank exchange on what they each wanted from the dialogue.”

Speaking to the media following the meeting, Kurti revealed that he had made four proposals to the Serbian delegation, stating that the first received no response and the other three were rejected.

Kurti said that his first proposal was for the six Western Balkan states to form a new South-East European Free Trade Agreement, a proposal he first outlined at a summit of Western Balkan leaders last week.

According to Kurti, his second proposal was for Kosovo and Serbia to immediately sign a joint peace agreement vowing not to attack each other, as this was never accomplished following the end of the war in 1999.

The third proposal Kurti outlined was for bilateral reciprocity to be established between the two states following mutual recognition, including on the issue of minority communities. Kurti stated that Serbs in Kosovo could have a National Council, as Albanians and Bosniaks do in Serbia.

The Kosovo Prime Minister also claimed that he requested the dismissal of Veljko Odalovic, the head of Serbia’s Commission for Missing Persons due to his position as Chief of Staff of the Kosovo Region between 1997-1999, including during the Kosovo War.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Vucic did not make reference to Kurti’s proposals, but did state that the Kosovo delegation “came to agree about absolutely nothing.”

The Serbian president added that the Kosovo delegation did not want to fulfill agreements it had signed, and did not want to discuss the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.

The establishment of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities was agreed in Brussels in 2013, with a second agreement reached in 2015 outlining principles for its formation. However, the 2015 agreement was never passed at the Kosovo parliament due to blockades by the opposition. The matter was referred to the Constitutional Court, which found that many elements of the agreement were contrary to the spirit of the Kosovo Constitution.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Kurti stated that Kosovo’s Constitutional Court has ruled out the formation of the Association, due to it contravening the Kosovo Constitution on 23 points. “We do not want for the majority to be privileged over the minority but we should not allow the same scenario as Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.

According to Vucic, the Kosovo delegation also demanded to know when Serbia would recognise Kosovo during the meeting. “They immediately asked to hear from us when we will recognise Kosovo independence,” he said. “I said never. He detonated.”

Summing up the meeting, Kurti stated that the two parties are ready to continue the dialogue process but there was currently no agreement on the agenda for the talks.

Lajcak confirmed that both leaders had agreed that there was no other way forward but to normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and had committed to a comprehensive normalisation of relations through the dialogue.

The EU Special Representative added that the dialogue process would continue before the end of July.

Bislimi: Churches issue was neither raised nor will it be discussed (Koha)

Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Besnik Bislimi told KTV that the issue of the status of Orthodox religious sites was not raised in yesterday’s meeting between Kurti and Vucic in Brussels and nor will it be discussed in the dialogue.

“However, in our meeting in Pristina with Lajcak and Palmer we did express our concern that it makes no sense for a secular country to have the church gain such authority that it becomes part of policy-making,” he said, adding that the involvement of the Orthodox Church should not be viewed by the EU as part of an initiative to guarantee rights to a community but as an attempt to have the religion take on notions of statehood elements.

Bislimi, who attended the Kurti-Vucic meeting yesterday in Brussels, said that Kosovo documented before the EU that Serbia sabotaged each agreement, including that on Association of Serb-majority municipalities. “Kosovo has not signed one agreement with Serbia in Brussels but 23 and the association is one of them and should be seen in this context. Association could have been a problem for debate if there were reports that of the two sides that there are no problems in implementation of other agreements.”

In a Facebook post, Bislimi commented on the parallel that PM Kurti is reported to have drawn between the current leadership in Serbia and that of the Nazi Germany. “For the sake of clarification: In today’s meeting in Brussels, Prime Minister Kurti did not compare Vucic, Odalovic and Andjelkovic with Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering, but only the fact that those in power in Serbia today, is similar to those that were in power in Germany even after World War II.”

PDK accuses Kurti of breaking promise on dialogue with Serbia (Koha/Klan)

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) accused Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti for, as member of PDK presidnecy Betim Gjoshi said, abandoning the promise that he would not take part in the dialogue with Serbia without the fate of missing persons being determined.

“Upon return from Brussels, Albin Kurti should go to Gjakova to Ferdonije Qerkezi at to the ‘Mothers’ cries’ to apologise for lying to them and deceiving them when he promised he would not dialogue with Serbia without the fate of their loved ones being resolved,” Gjoshi said.

Haradinaj to Kurti: Withdraw from many points, seek only recognition (RTV21)

Former Prime Minister of Kosovo, currently chairman of the AAK, Ramush Haradinaj called publicly on Prime Minister Kurti to give up the four points proposed Tuesday in Brussels and keep only one point, that of mutual recognition within the existing borders.

Haradinaj said that the points proposed by Prime Minister Kurti, delay the dialogue process indefinitely and could enable Serbia to open a new chapter.

“The proposal of four points in today’s meeting between Kurti and Vucic with the mediation of the EU, gave space to the Serbian side but also to the EU to talk about any point they want, so he is delaying the dialogue process indefinitely instead of just asking for mutual recognition. This form of dialogue only enables Serbia to open a new chapter, and Prime Minister Kurti’s frequent visits to Brussels and back. We have seen this kind of talks in the past,” Haradinaj said.

He called on Kurti to abandon the points proposed in Brussels and to seek only mutual recognition within the existing borders from which then the peace agreement derives.

“This turns Kosovo’s position to an equal economic and trade position, for integration, for EU membership, towards NATO and UN membership”, added Haradinaj.

He said that Kurti cannot deceive all the citizens of Kosovo if he can deceive those who voted for him.

“What happened today in Brussels by Prime Minister Kurti, is a great deception of the citizens and damage to the state of Kosovo, but this does not pass because Kurti cannot deceive the entire Kosovo. If he treats those who gave him the vote as he is treating them, do not forget that the other half did not vote for him and they will have no reason to be embarrassed to tell the truth,” Haradinaj concluded.

Haziri: There were no negotiations, only a meeting (Klan Kosova)

Lutfi Haziri, deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said in an interview with Klan Kosova on Tuesday that there were no negotiations in Brussels on Tuesday but only a meeting between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. “Kurti strategically avoided the format of the talks. What he said earlier in Prishtina that he ‘wont go there to talk with Vucic, but to meet him according to the request of the EU and the US’, that is actually what happened today. There were no negotiations; there was only a meeting,” Haziri said.

Presevo Valley Albanians request from Kurti to be part of the dialogue (media)

The chairman of the Albanian National Council in the Presevo Valley Ragmi Mustafi, commented on the meeting between the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels.

One of the proposals that Kurti made at the meeting with Vucic was that after mutual recognition, Serbs in Kosovo can have their National Council as Albanians and Bosniaks in Serbia do.

Mustafi stated that the strength of the Albanian National Council is very weak, and they are constantly discriminated.

“In Serbia, there are 24 national minority councils as part of the Convention on the Rights of Minorities. Within the legal framework, it is ensured that they have power in areas such as education, culture, information, the use of minority languages and writing as well as national symbols.”

“Today we are banned by law to use our flag, and we do not have any books in Albanian in high schools. We have a lack of funding on an Albanian television – we are constantly discriminated,” Mustafi said.

He stressed that without the inclusion of the Presevo Valley, there will be no normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations.

“We will see how the dialogue will go and we have always wanted to be part of the dialogue because we have constantly asked for the advancement of the Albanians’ position in Serbia. We consider that this is the last opportunity to regulate the status of Albanians of the Valley”.

Konjufca: Serbia using double standards in the dialogue process (media)

Kosovo Assembly Speaker Glauk Konjufca said at a roundtable discussion with heads of parliamentary committees that Serbia is using double standards in the dialogue process by insisting on implementation of certain agreements and shunning the others.

“What Serbia considers a strategic position is to demand for those that have been signed but which factually our institutions and constitutional order have ruled out because truly, the agreement on ‘Zajednica’ was such, it violated Kosovo’s constitutional foundations,” Konjufca said adding that while Serbia insists on the formation of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities it refuses to implement agreement on recognition of diplomas.

He said Kosovo institutions need to assess all agreements reached so far in the course of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and that the role of the committees should be greater in this process.

EU, U.S. at Brussels Summit make commitment to Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (RTK)

The European Union and the United States agreed today at the Brussels Summit that they will intensify co-operation on a number of global issues, including joint engagement in the Western Balkans, which includes dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

The European Union and the United States said in a joint statement that the aim of the summit was to renew the Transatlantic Partnership and set a common transatlantic agenda for the post-pandemic era.

The two sides pledged to strengthen co-operation on many issues, such as the fight against the pandemic, climate change, relations with Russia, China, Iran, and a point of the statement refers to the Western Balkans.

“We intend to further strengthen our joint engagement in the Western Balkans, including through the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on normalization of their relations, and by supporting key reforms for EU integration. We resolve to work hand-in-hand for sustainable de-escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean, where differences should be settled through dialogue in good faith and in accordance with international law,” is written in their joint statement.

Haradinaj: Vjosa Osmani is a servant of Kurti (Zeri)

Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) leader Ramush Haradinaj commented on Tuesday on Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani’s decision to dismiss Valdete Daka from the post of Central Election Commission chief. According to Haradinaj, “Osmani is a servant of [Prime Minister] Kurti. She will carry out the duties that Kurti assigns to her”. “This is the President that we have. If in the past there were Prime Ministers that could not dare speak because of the President … This is what I warned about before the elections, Kosovo being in the hands of only one person,” Haradinaj said in an interview with RTV21.

Abrashi: Idea of Association won’t be implemented, it would be fatal (media)

Vetevendosje Movement (VV) MP Artan Abrashi said in a debate in Klan Kosova on Tuesday that the idea of establishing the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities is unacceptable for Kosovo. “The Association is a continuation of an idea pushed forward by Serbia and unfortunately accepted by the political class in Kosovo. Implementing this structure would be devastating for Kosovo. The objective of the Association is well known and is therefore unacceptable. It will not be implemented. The creation of a third tier of government would be fatal,” Abrashi said.

President Osmani extends technical mandate of EULEX (Koha)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has extended the technical mandate of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), the paper reports on page two. Osmani informed about this in a letter exchange with EU High Representative Josep Borrell. She told Borrell that the mandate of EULEX is extended for one year with the possibility of another one-year extension. She also wrote in her letter that the mandate of the mission will be technical, without executive competencies and based on monitoring, mentoring and advising.