• Kurti on energy crisis: Government will cover electricity supply (Indeksonline)
• Looming price hikes worsen energy crisis in Kosovo (Prishtina Insight)
• Kosovo, Serbia face power outages amid winter chill, surging energy prices (Reuters)
• Konjufca: Borrell should not pressure Kosovo on Association (Klan Kosova)
• Kosovo, Serbia working groups on license plates meet for third time (Koha)
• Former Dutch ambassador: Special Court is a political cause (RTK)
• Kosovo court suspends judge based on BIRN report (BIRN)
• Vucic doing “a modern ethnic cleansing”, says Presevo mayor (euronews.al)
• COVID-19: 11 new cases, no deaths (media)
• ‘Open Balkan’ leaders to hold summit in Tirana on December 20 (Exit News)
• China in the Balkans: Controversy and Cost (BIRN)

Kurti on energy crisis: Government will cover electricity supply (Indeksonline)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told a press conference on Wednesday that the government will cover the cost of importing electricity in order to maintain a steady supply for the citizens. “The energy crisis which engulfed the countries in the region has reached Kosovo too. We were fortunate to cover through the Kosova A and Kosova B power plants. In winter, there is a rising demand because of heating. Kosovo depends on imports to keep the lights on. Two blocs of Kosova B are out of function … The government will cover the cost of electricity import and we will maintain a steady supply,” he said.

Kurti said that the people are suffering today from the lack of vision of former government officials. “No investments were made in our power plants for two decades. It was more appropriate for them to steal from the Kosovo Power Corporation. We are at the level of duty, but we found the state in a very bad condition. Together we will raise it. Those that brought us to this day should spare us of their lectures and feel ashamed of what they done,” he added.

Looming price hikes worsen energy crisis in Kosovo (Prishtina Insight)

The energy crisis in Kosovo has deepened after a production unit of the main power plant stopped working, and with a fresh increase in the price of electricity on the cards.

Kosovo is facing an energy crisis as a result of rising global import prices and rising demand, as temperatures are falling.

On Tuesday, the situation was aggravated further after a bloc of the main “Kosova B” power plant was taken out of use.

Minister of Economy Artane Rizvanolli told the Parliamentary Committee on Economy that the energy situation in Kosovo would be even worse for the next 36 hours, while the bloc from the power plant is out of order.

“A bloc of Kosova B had to be stopped for 36 hours. For the next three days, the energy situation will be even worse,” she warned.

A day later, the public heating supply company Termokos in Pristina cut off the supply of heating to the capital due to a shortage of steam supplied from the Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK.

KEK announced that the only clients still being supplied with heat are patients at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo.

It emphasized that on Thursday the conditions for Termokos to supply steam for central heating will resume.

Meanwhile, the Electricity Distribution Company in Kosovo, KEDS, has called for an increase in electricity prices of 7 per cent.

KEDS spokesman Viktor Buzhala told a Kallxo Pernime debate that in the end all decisions on prices are taken by the Energy Regulatory Office, ERO.

The ERO has already opened a process of extraordinary reviews of tariffs, following requests submitted by KEDS and the Universal Electricity Service Provider, KESCO.

Electricity prices are expected to increase by at least 5 per cent.

Based on its legal mandate, ERO has said it will review the applications of licensees, assessing the need for continued electricity supply and affordable prices for consumers.

At the end of October, ERO decided not to increase the price of electricity. According to its decision, energy prices would remain the same as last year until April 2022.

Due to the crisis, citizens of Kosovo have meanwhile been asked to save electricity.

For weeks, many European countries have been gripped by an energy crisis caused by rising gas prices and other factors.

This has also affected the Western Balkans. Besides Kosovo, its neighbours Albania and Northern Macedonia are also facing energy problems.

Kosovo, Serbia face power outages amid winter chill, surging energy prices (Reuters)

Kosovo’s biggest coal-fired power plant shutdown both its units on Wednesday due to a technical issue, stopping central heating in the capital Pristina and forcing the country to import electricity at high prices, state-owned KEK power utility said.

Heavy snow, cold weather and poor maintenance also knocked out a third of power production capacity in neighbouring Serbia, leaving thousands of homes there without electricity or heating.

The outages add to problems facing energy producers across Europe, which is grappling with rocketing gas and power prices as demand surges with the economic recovery from the pandemic.

Kosovo, which depends on coal-fired power plants for 90% of its energy needs, imported electricity at 250 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) in recent days, up from 60 euros per MWh at the same time last year, Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli said.

KEK said it was working to restore production by Thursday in at least one unit of the Kosovo B plant, which has total installed capacity of 680 megawatts (MW). It blamed a boiler leak for the shutdown of one of the units at the plant.

As winter weather hit Serbia’s power capacity, President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Tuesday the country now had to import about a quarter of its energy needs.

Like Kosovo and other countries in the region, Serbia is heavily reliant on coal-fired plants, accounting for 70% of energy needs. It aims to invest 17 billion euros ($19 billion) over the next 20 years on hydropower, solar and other renewables to cut emissions. read more

Serbian Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said the EPS power utility needed to invest more in maintenance and expanding production.

According to data from Serbia’s EMS power transmission operator, the country was importing 1.425 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by noon on Wednesday.

Konjufca: Borrell should not pressure Kosovo on Association (Klan Kosova)

Kosovo Assembly President Glauk Konjufca, in an interview with the TV station on Wednesday, reiterated his position against the formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. “We are in a position when the chief of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, at a press conference with our Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, he speaks his first word as pressure saying that we cannot move forward without Kosovo forming the Association. Serbia’s approach to the Association is that we owe something to them and that in their view for us to be credible partners we need to form the Association even with executive competencies and then we could discuss topics if an agreement on recognition is possible or not. With the Association, we don’t even need their recognition,” Konjufca said. “The structures that would be created would increase the autonomy of the Association and not the sovereignty of Kosovo”.

Kosovo, Serbia working groups on license plates meet for third time (Koha)

Kosovo and Serbia working groups on the issue of license plates met for the third time in Brussels on Wednesday. The meeting was confirmed by EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak. “Today, the third meeting of the Working Group on Licence Plates took place in Brussels. Expert delegations of Kosovo and Serbia engaged in an in-depth discussion. I am confident that they will find a permanent solution for the benefit of their citizens,” Lajcak wrote in a Twitter post.

Former Dutch ambassador: Special Court is a political cause (RTK)

Robert Bosch, former Dutch ambassador to Kosovo, said in an interview with RTK on Wednesday that by denying the Recak massacre Serbia is continuing to present itself as a victim the same way it has done in Bosnia. “Serbs are trying to rewrite history by presenting themselves as victims and not as those that started the conflict; they have done this in Bosnia and they are doing this in the Kosovo case too. This is certainly not true, but they have chosen a very smart way to present themselves as victims and this lead to the formation of the Special Court in the Hague. This is a court that prosecutes the victims while the real aggressors are not prosecuted. Maybe this is the reason why they are still fabricating fake news in an attempt to rewrite history,” Bosch said.

Commenting on the Special Court, Bosch said: “I’ve said this before that I have my doubts about this court, because it goes only after one group in the conflict and not after the other. I think that the court should not have been formed and in fact this is a political cause”.

Kosovo court suspends judge based on BIRN report (BIRN)

Kosovo’s Supreme Court has confirmed the suspension of a judge while it investigates the lenient sentence she handed to a man for assaulting a teenage girl – after BIRN reported details of the case.

Kosovo’s Supreme Court has confirmed the suspension of Peja/Pec Basic Court Judge Florije Zartriqi after BIRN reported that she had sentenced a man in July to only eight months and eight days in prison for raping a 15-year-old in 2012.

BIRN’s report on the Peja/Pec Court’s mild verdict in the case of the raped teenage girl prompted the Judicial Council to Suspend the Judge in early November.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the Judicial Council’s decision to suspend Zatriqi, considering that “an investigation had been launched against her for a disciplinary violation by a competent authority and the alleged disciplinary violation is quite serious, and in the end this measure of suspension enables the development of an impartial and effective investigation of the disciplinary responsibility of the complainant-judge Florije Zatriqi”.

In July 2021, the Basic Court in Peja/Pec found the defendant, who was only identified by the initials P.K., guilty of abusing the teenage girl in 2012.

P.K., who had pleaded guilty, was jailed for eight months and eight days, even though Kosovo’s criminal code allows sentences of five years to 20 years in prison for such offences.

P.K. was in pre-trial detention for the exact amount of time to which he was sentenced, so he did not have to serve any more prison time.

Together with another minor, he kidnapped the victim by threatening her with a knife as she was leaving hospital. According to the indictment, the victim was taken to an abandoned house where P.K. and two other minors sexually abused her until she managed to escape the next morning.

Trial judge Zartriqi considered ten mitigating circumstances when deciding on the sentence, such as the fact that the defendant pleaded guilty, expressed regret, had no previous convictions, and was only 21 at the time of the crime and therefore in some aspects immature.

The court did not find any aggravating circumstance in the case; a decision that protesting activists criticised in late-October.

The activists requested the dismissal of the prosecutor of the case as well. However she had retired some years beforehand.

Vucic doing “a modern ethnic cleansing”, says Presevo mayor (euronews.al)

The Mayor of Presevo Ardita Sinani said that Serbia is following “a denationalizing plan” against ethnic Albanians in the Presevo Valley and called on Albanian and Kosovar authorities to align in order to protect the rights of the Albanian people beyond their borders.

In an interview with Franko Egro on Balkan Talks, Sinani described Vucic’s way of doing politics as “nationalistic”, a cultural “neoconservative” and “neoliberal” when it comes to economic matters.

“Vucic hides behind a pro-European image but in fact, he feeds the idea of an authoritarian Serbia who infringes human rights. Unfortunately, he’s being pampered by the West for geopolitical and geostrategic reasons”, Presevo’s mayor said.

In regards to the passivation of Albanian mailing addresses in the Presevo Valley, she reiterates that it was the Helsinki Committee who ruled it as a “modern ethnic cleansing via administrative methods”.

She highlighted that Serbia is not respecting a 2001 agreement for the return of the Albanian people, but instead is doing the complete opposite by forcing them to leave.

Around 6,000 Albanians no longer appear in Serbian records. Sinani explains that the situation is more serious in Medvegja and Bujanovc, although a rising tendency has also been seen in Presevo.

COVID-19: 11 new cases, no deaths (media)

11 new cases of COVID-19 and no deaths have been recorded in Kosovo in the last 24 hours. 11 persons recov6ered during this time. There are 314 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

‘Open Balkan’ leaders to hold summit in Tirana on December 20 (Exit News)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will visit Tirana on December 20 and 21 for the next “Open Balkan” summit.

The meeting was notified in early November, after Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov met in Belgrade to discuss a set of possible agreements.

During their November press conference, the three leaders announced that they would meet in Tirana to sign a number of key agreements regarding the free movement of goods, people and services, including a memorandum regarding work permits.

If signed, a work permit issued in Albania, North Macedonia, or Serbia would be valid in all three countries.

China in the Balkans: Controversy and Cost (BIRN)

BIRN has identified 135 Chinese-linked projects in the Balkans worth more than 32 billion euros. Few have come without controversy.

It started in 2009; the financial crisis that hit the world a year earlier was storming through the Balkans, and the region was scraping the bottom of the barrel to make ends meet.

Enter China.

Greece opened its door through the Port of Piraeus, while Serbia declared China the ‘fourth pillar’ of its foreign policy. Balkan countries needed money, and China needed a friendly corridor from the Mediterranean to Europe. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But it came at a price.

More than a decade later, by BIRN’s own count, the region hosts 135 projects worth at least 32 billion euros, that are in one way, or another linked to China. The interactive map ‘China in the Balkans’ is a result of BIRN’s research into the various types of cooperation between Beijing and countries in the region.

China is taking over metallurgy, mining, energy, and transport, with most of these projects accompanied by allegations of corruption, exploitation and environmental harm.

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