Albanian Language Media:

• Osmani: Serbia’s militarization reveals Vucic’s objective in Open Balkan (Koha)
• Milanovic: Open Balkan, useless if Kosovo is not treated equally (media)
• Health Institute: Tests that can detect Omicron expected to arrive today (RFE) 

Serbian Language Media:

• Botsan-Kharchenko: Moscow urges Pristina for normal dialogue with Belgrade (Kosovo-online)
• EU Ambassador Giaufret exchanges views with Patriarch Porfirije (N1)
• EU: Serbia aligns with policy on Belarus (N1)
• Serbia pursuing responsible policy, Vucic tells Austrian ORF (Tanjug)
• France and Germany continue to co-operate on an initiative to help Serbia-Kosovo dialogue (RFE)
• Covid-19: nine new cases registered in Serbian areas (RTS)

Opinion:

• The curse of the “Open Balkan” (Koha)
• Vucic’s New Pose as Serbia’s ‘Protector’ Shouldn’t Fool Anyone (Balkan Insight)

International:

• Serbian Minister Faces New Legal Challenge for ‘Insulting Albanians’ (Balkan Insight)
• Rio Tinto controversy: Has the EU designated Serbia as a “sacrificial zone” for lithium extraction? (EWB)
• Montenegro Close to Choosing Bechtel to Build Adriatic Highway (Balkan Insight)
• Hope Fades for Missing Victims of Albania’s Communist Regime (Balkan Insight)

Albanian Language Media  

Osmani: Serbia’s militarization reveals Vucic’s objective in Open Balkan (Koha)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said today that the Mini-Schengen initiative in Novi Sad has violated the principle of inclusiveness and equal treatment in the region and that Kosovo insists that regional cooperation should continue in the framework of the Berlin Process and that this remains the only alternative to move forward.

“While Serbia has a key role in this process [the Open Balkan] and has not recognized Kosovo, we cannot expect Vucic to have good intentions for our state and the region, because the militarization of Serbia reveals his true objective. When Serbia recognizes Kosovo, only then can we consider this seriously,” Osmani said.

Milanovic: Open Balkan, useless if Kosovo is not treated equally (media)

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said during his stay in Prishtina today that the Open Balkan initiative is useless if Kosovo is not treated equally with the other partners. During a press conference with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Milanovic said he believes the objectives of the initiative are not humane. 

“Being that Croatia is a member state of the European Union, as President, I will not comment on it [Open Balkan] because it does not affect us directly, but if the initiative has good intentions, all countries must be treated equally, or else what are the motives? If this initiative does not treat Kosovo equally, then one must say that it is useless. This is a camouflage and the intentions of this initiative are not humane,” he said.

Health Institute: Tests that can detect Omicron expected to arrive today (RFE) 

Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health told the news website today that they are expected to soon receive test kits that can detect the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The test kits will arrive at Prishtina Airport on December 23 and it depends on customs procedures when the National Institute for Public Health will get them.

Serbian Language Media

Botsan-Kharchenko: Moscow urges Pristina for normal dialogue with Belgrade (Kosovo-online)

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said Moscow calls upon Pristina to end its irresponsible behavior and continue normal dialogue with Belgrade, Kosovo-online portal reports.

“I agree that the reason for stalemate in Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is lack of readiness on the part of provisional institutions of the local self-government in Kosovo to conduct serious talks. Let’s start from the point that the Brussels dialogue, organized in line with the UN General Assembly resolution, has potential that has not been used”, Ambassador said.

According to him, it is also important that dialogue facilitators and other interested parties underline that Albanian leaders should fulfil their earlier obligations, in particular those concerning establishment of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities.

“Turning a deaf ear to this obligation is detrimental for Pristina, and we expect they will understand it as soon as possible”, he added.

The Russian Ambassador also said that Pristina’s attempts to destabilize the situation, including the actions of special police forces in the north of Kosovo only create even higher tensions.

“We are sorry that those making such decisions do not consider its possible serious implications”, Botsan-Kharchenko said.  

EU Ambassador Giaufret exchanges views with Patriarch Porfirije (N1)

The head of the European Union Delegation Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret said on Wednesday that he met with the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije for an exchange of views, N1 reports.

“To exchange views with religious leaders is important for the EU”, the ambassador wrote in a Twitter post.

“I had the great pleasure to meet today His Holiness Patriarch Porphyry. To exchange views with religious leaders is important for the EU. We also exchanged our wishes for a peaceful Christmas”, Giaufret said.

EU: Serbia aligns with policy on Belarus (N1)

The European Union welcomed the fact that four Western Balkan countries, including Serbia, have aligned with the EU Council decision to impose restrictive measures on Belarus, N1 reports.

A Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU said that North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania aligned themselves with the decision. “They will ensure that their national policies conform to this Council decision. The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it”, the declaration said.

The EU imposed new restrictive measures on the authorities of Belarus following the migrant crisis on that country’s border with Poland.

Serbia pursuing responsible policy, Vucic tells Austrian ORF (Tanjug)

Serbia is pursuing a responsible policy and respects the Dayton Agreement and the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as well as the integrity of Republika Srpska within the BiH, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF.

As the region’s fastest-growing economy, Serbia has no interest in tensions in the BiH and the region, Vucic said in a comment on the situation in the BiH.

“Serbia respects the Dayton Agreement, it never questions the integrity of the BiH but, at the same time, it also respects the integrity of Republika Srpska within the BiH”, he said.

“No one – let alone Serbia, which is the fastest-growing economy – needs problems in the BiH. Our policy is a responsible policy”, Vucic explained.

See at: https://cutt.ly/QUahm8I

France and Germany continue to co-operate on an initiative to help Serbia-Kosovo dialogue (RFE)

France and Germany will continue cooperation within the initiative of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, to help the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, European diplomats announced, reported Radio Free Europe.

In talks with Brussels correspondents on December 22nd, diplomats from EU states stressed the need to “mobilize” the European side to help dialogue. They believe that there are forces present in the region “that do not contribute to the stabilization of the situation”.

“The attitudes of Belgrade and Pristina regarding the dialogue are diametrically different. There is great mistrust. The situation in the dialogue is complicated and will require a lot of diplomatic engagement,” said one European diplomat

Former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, in 2019, launched an initiative together with France to strengthen European efforts in dialogue, but also reverse the direction in which the process started at that time.

It was the moment when the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the former President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaqi admitted that they had opened the issue of the exchange of territories within the Brussels dialogue as an option for reaching a final agreement.

As part of this initiative, a meeting was held in Berlin in April 2019

This announcement of the renewed cooperation between Paris and Berlin in the dialogue comes on the eve of the French presidency of the European Union (EU), which begins on January 1, 2022.

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has already announced that the Western Balkans will be among his priorities, and he suggested holding a conference dedicated to the situation in the region. According to Western diplomats, the conference will address “specific problems” in the Western Balkans.

“President Macron is particularly motivated and will invest his political capital in resolving the blockades in the Western Balkans,” one diplomat told reporters in Brussels

In addition to the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, it was announced that possible solutions to the dispute between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia, which prevents the opening of accession negotiations, will be worked on.

According to the announcement of local diplomats, France will pay special attention to the crisis in BiH. According to these interlocutors, the events in BiH “lead to the destabilization of the region”, reported RFE.

Covid-19: nine new cases registered in Serbian areas (RTS)

Out of 142 tested samples in the Serb-populated areas in Kosovo, nine were positive for Covid-19, Crisis Committee of Mitrovica North announced, RTS reports.

New cases were registered as follows: five in Leposavic, two in Zubin Potok, and one each in Mitrovica North and Strpce.

Currently, there are 116 active cases of Covid-19 in the Serbian areas in Kosovo. 

Opinion

The curse of the “Open Balkan” (Koha)

Op-ed by Demush Shasha, Executive Director of the Prishtina-based EPIK Institute

The three leaders of the “Open Balkan” are the most undemocratic persons in the region. Vucic has turned Serbia into a hybrid Russian-Chinese autocracy. Rama is the only leader that has held elections without the opposition, while Zaev is leaving. The bright democratic future of the region cannot be built with this political class.

The trajectory of Prime Minister Rama’s political positions is curious. He started his first term by siding with Kosovo against Vucic in Belgrade; he spent his second term entertaining the idea for territorial exchange between Kosovo and Serbia and he started his third term by siding with Vucic against Kosovo in Tirana. But beyond the evolution of Prime Minister Rama’s political position, his idea (or Vucic’s idea, depending on who you trust) for the Mini-Schengen is not evolving, except for its name.

Two years after the “Open Balkan” initiative was launched, after six summits were held and eight agreements were signed, the leaders of three countries are not managing to convince the skeptics about the importance of the initiative. Since its inception, the initiative has oscillated between uselessness and danger, and often both. Its initiators, Rama and Vucic in particular, tried to replace the lack of internal credibility by claiming that the U.S. and EU support the “Open Balkan”. But it soon became clear that Chancellor Merkel, President Von der Leyen, and the Special Envoy of the U.S. State Department, Escobar, do not support the initiative. Thus, the existential need for external legitimacy took them [the initiators] to the Hungarian Commissioner for Enlargement and the envoy of Vucic’s friend, Viktor Orban. Nevertheless, limited by the architecture of EU institutions, even Commissioner Varhelyi did not manage to give more than half of support.

The latest summit of the “Open Balkan” was no different from previous summits. Before the summit, the three leaders issued a public letter which in essence was a copy paste of what Vucic had written a couple of months earlier in “Politika”, when he said that the “Open Balkan was historic and that its results would be too”. At the time, Vucic even went so far as to compare himself and his friends with the founders of the EU, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer.

This week, during the summit, the leaders signed five new agreements, which together with the agreements signed in Skopje in July this year, amount to a total of eight agreements. Following the summit, the media conference was a repetition of boring hyperbolism about the importance of the “Open Balkan”. In addition to the now-outdated message that the region now needs to take its future in its hands, as the EU has its own problems, Rama also said that “a new era now begins”. Vucic qualified the initiative as “an outstanding initiative for people to live free in the region, in every city and every village”. This is ironic being that citizens in every city and village in Serbia are protesting for their freedoms against Vucic’s regime. Zaev on the other hand even after six summits left the impression that he did not know why he was there.

The hyperbolism of Rama and Vucic is nothing new, it has become common. It seems that faced with a situation where they cannot present a single concrete result, the leaders have decided to replace the lack of results with heavy praise.

Beyond self-praise, there is another aspect why these leaders are fond of holding meetings of the “Open Balkan”. All three leaders are facing political crisis and dissatisfaction in their respective countries. Under Vucic’s regime, democracy in Serbia has degraded to the level of Belarus. Major protests were held in Belgrade in the last couple of days. Unlike previous protests, the latest protests showed greater organization forcing the regime to back down and agree to their demands. In Albania, after monist local elections in 2019, Rama held contested parliamentary elections which are plaguing the country in political crisis. Zaev, on the other hand, after his defeat in the local elections, is replacing democratic legitimacy with political machinations. In this context, the summits of the “Open Balkan” seem like rare moments of quietness, where the leaders of these three countries can escape for some time the dissatisfaction of their peoples and build narratives of peace-loving European statesmen.

Nevertheless, the summit this week had two novelties. First, the protest called by Sali Berisha. To date, no summit of the “Open Balkan” was met with democratic protests. This was the first time that citizens of Albania took to the streets against an initiative which until now was opposed only in TV studios and social networks. The protest against the “Open Balkan” was certainly directly influenced by internal developments in the Democratic Party, but despite this, it is a welcoming fact that Albanian society has a vibrant democracy which is capable of making public the positions of one part of its citizens in a peaceful fashion.

The second novelty was the presence of the Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi. Until now, the EU has refused to explicitly support the “Open Balkan”. In their visits to the region, Chancellor Merkel and EC President Von der Leyen did not even mention the “Open Balkan”, referring only to the EU initiative known as the Berlin Process. In this context, the presence of Commissioner Varhelyi was interpreted as support for the “Open Balkan”. I would take this with a dose of skepticism. President Djukanovic once attended the “Open Balkan” and this was interpreted as proof of the success of the initiative, but Djukanovic soon distanced himself from the initiative. It should also be noted that while Commissioner Varhelyi said during the summit that he supports the “Open Balkan”, in his Twitter profile he was more reserved saying that “every regional cooperation in line with the EU rules is welcome” and added that “it would be ideal for the parties to return to the Common Regional Market”. So first, “Open Balkan” is not in line with EU rules because it does not secure inclusiveness, and second, the Commissioner clearly put the Common Regional Market of the Berlin Process before the “Open Balkan”.

Therefore, I think we need to be cautious in the interpretation of Commissioner Varhelyi’s position as an explicit support for the “Open Balkan”. The commissioner needs to navigate a narrow diplomatic path between the position of the EU against the “Open Balkan” and the pressure in favor of “Open Balkan” he gets from the three leaders of the Balkans and their autocratic allies in the EU.

In closing I will note the main challenge of Vucic, Rama and Zaev’s idea for the “Open Balkan”. In fact, it is them. Political graveyards are filled with good ideas which were implemented wrongly by the wrong people. In this sense, the problem is not that the “Open Balkan” is infinitely wrong. The problem is that its leaders lack the political and moral legitimacy to be the leaders of a new regional idea that would lead the Balkans toward a bright democratic era. And this is the main curse of the “Open Balkan”.

Vucic’s New Pose as Serbia’s ‘Protector’ Shouldn’t Fool Anyone (Balkan Insight)

With elections looming and his ratings on the slide, the President is suddenly siding with protesters against Serbia’s ‘bad government’ – the same government he controls from top to bottom.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are approaching in Serbia on April 3, so President Aleksandar Vucic is suddenly jumping into the role of the “protector” of the people.

During the nine years of rule of the Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, people have become accustomed to Vucic’s monologues in which he disrespects different opinions and teaches lessons to dissenters.

“I won’t do it and I will not give it” are his usual answers to the often-justified demands of individuals, non-governmental organizations and experts. Occasionally he adds the strongest “argument” of all – “You can only kill me, so what?”

But the big street protests in November and December over Rio Tinto’s plan to open a lithium mine in the Jadar River Valley near the western town of Loznica have shaken his ratings and those of the SNS. “Damage control” was necessary; Vučić changed overnight and suddenly began to “respect” the voice of the people.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3mqG2iQ

International

Serbian Minister Faces New Legal Challenge for ‘Insulting Albanians’ (Balkan Insight)

The Albanian National Council, which represents Serbia’s Albanian minority, will take its case to the Constitutional Court after Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin was cleared of discrimination for using an ethnic slur.

The Albanian National Council’s lawyer told BIRN that the organisation will take its case to Serbia’s Constitutional Court after the Belgrade Court of Appeals confirmed a verdict clearing Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin of discriminating against the country’s Albanian community by calling them ‘Shiptars’.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3egraze

Rio Tinto controversy: Has the EU designated Serbia as a “sacrificial zone” for lithium extraction? (EWB)

In recent weeks, multiple media outlets have reported that the European Union had labeled the Jadar region in the western part of Serbia as a “sacrificial zone” for its green technology.

According to these narratives, the lithium mine operated by the international company Rio Tinto, which is planned to be built in Jadar region, will provide material for, among other, batteries for the electric vehicles industry in the EU. However, there are widespread concerns that the project would be detrimental for the environment of Serbia.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/32wPieb

Montenegro Close to Choosing Bechtel to Build Adriatic Highway (Balkan Insight)

Montenegro on Wednesday said it was close to finalizing a deal with US constructor Bechtel to finish the Adriatic-Ionian highway to Albania – despite the company’s uneven record in the region.

Montenegro’s Ministry of Finance and Social Care on Wednesday announced that the Adriatic-Ionian motorway would likely be constructed by Bechtel, a US company previously linked to some controversial projects in the region. After meeting Bechtel representative Andrew Patterson, Minister Milojko Spajic said a memorandum of cooperation could be signed in the next few weeks.

“The study and construction of the Adriatic-Ionian motorway is the first project, the first example of infrastructure built according to all EU and NATO standards. In the coming weeks, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and Bechtel’s CEO will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to begin formalizing all agreements and specify planned investments”, Spajic said.

Read more at: https://cutt.ly/iUayuMJ

Hope Fades for Missing Victims of Albania’s Communist Regime (Balkan Insight)

The Albanian authorities’ efforts to locate the graves of thousands people killed by the country’s former Communist dictatorship have stalled, causing disillusionment and anger among the families of the disappeared.

Gjelosh Ashta was arrested by Albania’s hardline Communist regime in 1946 – one of six Catholics in the northern city of Shkodra who were accused of plotting to overthrow communism by setting up an organisation called the National Union.

“All the way to court, ordinary people were insulting them, spitting on them and calling them ‘traitors’. Children were throwing stones at them too,” said Ashta’s nephew, Ndoc Ashta.

All six men including Gjelosh Ashta, who was a 20-year-old student at a Catholic seminary at the time, were sentenced to death after a trial that lasted just 13 days.

Read more at: https://cutt.ly/AUaumAi