• Kurti denies there is plan for Association of Serb-majority municipalities (media)
• Kurti: We are close to an agreement on billing energy in the north (Klan)
• Kosovo to chair two general committees in SEECP (media)
• Protesters support, IMF and government oppose, withdrawal pension funds (BIRN)
• Can a “Team of Unity” be formed again to close deal with Serbia? (Indeksonline)
• Kurti meets Director of International Republican Institute, McCarthy (media)
• “EU must freeze talks with Serbia, after Vucic remarks on Kosovo” (Telegrafi)
• Kosovo harnesses legacy of war to train Ukrainians to clear mines (Reuters)
• No interethnic incidents in Vushtrri region (Telegrafi)
• “Kosovo cannot be compared with situation in Ukraine” (Albanian Daily News)

Kurti denies there is plan for Association of Serb-majority municipalities (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, told a press conference on Wednesday that he is not aware of any plan for the formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. He said Kosovo has an association of municipalities and that its constitution does not tolerate an association on ethnic basis.

“Kosovo has an association of municipalities. The existing association is enough. I am not aware of any plan for the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. The Constitution does not tolerate an association on ethnic basis. And let us not forget that if you ask the citizens of Kosovo, no one views this association as a priority, they want development and education,” Kurti said.

Kurti also said he has not received an invitation from EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell. “When I receive such an invitation I will treat with the highest commitment. He may have thought about it, but the Office of the Prime Minister has not received any invitation,” he added.

Kurti: We are close to an agreement on billing energy in the north (Klan)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said on Wednesday that his government is close to reaching an agreement on billing the energy in the mainly Serb-inhabited north of Kosovo. He said there is no alternative to the billing and that “every cent allocated for the energy in the north will be registered as a debt”.

“We have inherited a grave situation where there was no billing of the energy in the north … However, we are saving the situation; first, there is the humanitarian aspect, and we do not want to disconnect an entire region from the power network and second, we don’t want to create pretext through which the power network of our neighbor, which does not recognize us and does not accept the crimes committed in Kosovo, to be expanded in Kosovo in the name of humanity,” Kurti said.

Kosovo to chair two general committees in SEECP (media)

A delegation of the Kosovo Assembly led by Speaker Glauk Konjufca is attending the 9th plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the South-East European Cooperation Process which is being held in Athens. During the meetings held on Wednesday it was decided that Kosovo will chair to general committees of the parliamentary assembly: the General Committee of Justice, Home Affairs and Security Cooperation, and the General Committee on Social Development, Education, Research and Science. RTK reports that Fitore Pacolli, Kosovo MP and member of the delegation, said that work was being done to add to the resolution a call for EU member states to give visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens. “We have the full support of Greece for this,” Pacolli said.

Protesters support, IMF and government oppose, withdrawal pension funds (BIRN)

Plans to permit the withdrawal of another chunk of the private pension fund continue to divide Kosovo.

Plans to allow an additional withdrawal from the pension fund by citizens have been criticised by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, deeming it a serious blow to the stability of the pension system that would significantly reduce the real value of future pensions.

“These withdrawals would also translate into a large congestion of domestic capital markets, seriously compromising budget financing and debt sustainability,” the IMF statement on Saturday said.

However, a Kosovo economist, Florim Aliu, said he favoured allowing withdrawal of 30 per cent of the trust funds, saying it would not affect inflation. According to him, on the contrary it would improve economic growth and growth of domestic demand.

“The fact that [Hekuran Murati, Minister of Finance] stated that this infusion of trust funds could cause inflation shows that they do not understand anything from a monetary point of view,” Aliu told Prishtina Insight.

According to him, withdrawing 30 per cent of the trust and injecting it into the economy would be good. Next year, the economy is expected to grow by 3.5 per cent.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/394yK0L

Can a “Team of Unity” be formed again to close deal with Serbia? (Indeksonline)

The news website reports on a recent meeting hosted by U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier with members of the Kosovo Team of Unity that took part in the Vienna talks in 2006-2007. What are the chances of creating another “Team of Unity” to reach a final settlement with Serbia? Leaders of political parties, and political commentators, have repeatedly called for the creation of such a team that would include all parliamentary parties in Kosovo, as the only way to reach a consensus on closing a final deal with Serbia. The news website contacted several members of the former Team of Unity, who attended the meeting hosted by Hovenier, but they did not agree to comment on the possibility, saying that the topic should be raised with the government.

Kurti meets Director of International Republican Institute, McCarthy (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, met on Wednesday with the Director of the International Republican Institute, Paul McCarthy, and discussed the program policies of political parties. Kurti said that the democratization of state institutions is not enough and that political parties too must be democratized.

On talks for the normalization of relations with Serbia, Kurti said an agreement must focus on mutual recognition and that Serbia must first recognize the documents of the Republic of Kosovo.

“EU must freeze talks with Serbia, after Vucic remarks on Kosovo” (Telegrafi)

Renata Alt, a member of the German Bundestag, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that the European Union must immediately freeze membership talks with Serbia, after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement on Kosovo. Alt said that Vucic’s remarks that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia show that he does not care about the long-term normalization of relations with Kosovo.

“The sharp tones from Belgrade add to the already tense situation between the two countries. The fact that Vucic is increasing cooperation with Kremlin and refusing to join sanctions against Serbia is diametrically oppose with the foreign policy of the EU. This is why negotiations for Serbia’s accession should be frozen immediately,” she said.

Kosovo harnesses legacy of war to train Ukrainians to clear mines (Reuters)

Dressed in body armour and a protective visor, Iryna Kustovska slowly sweeps a metal detector across a patch of grass in search of a buried fake landmine as her machine emits high-pitched squeaks.

The 38-year-old civil aviation administrator from Kiev is in Kosovo, where she is training to be a deminer before returning home to participate in the huge task of removing mines and other explosive ordnance left scattered across Ukraine during Russia’s invasion.

“There are different ways to help your country and I picked this one….so it’s a drastic change in my life,” she told Reuters.

Kustovska and 12 other Ukrainians, a mix of civilian and military personnel, are on a four-week advanced course being run by local trainers who participated in clearing tens of thousands of mines and cluster bombs left by departing Serb forces and unexploded devices from NATO airplanes.

Read more at: https://reut.rs/3x9odL5

No interethnic incidents in Vushtrri region (Telegrafi)

The head of the village of Gojlube, in the municipality of Vushtrri, Bratislav Kostic, told Dukagjini TV on Wednesday that there are no problems between the Serb and Albanian residents there and that they get along well. “We are all born in Kosovo and our needs are the same. I call on all people to respect each other more,” Kostic said.

The TV station reported that the EU Head of Office, Tomas Szunyog, visited Kostic’s on Tuesday and tweeted after the visit that interethnic incidents have intensified recently. The TV station also contacted the EU Office to ask where the claims were based but received no answer.

“Kosovo cannot be compared with situation in Ukraine” (Albanian Daily News)

The news website reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has several times compared the case of Kosovo with that of Donetsk and Luhansk, thus claiming their recognition as independent regions. Albania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ferit Hoxha, at the first conference of the Albanian presidency of the UN Security Council, said that there are no similarities between Kosovo and Donetsk. Kosovo is not on the agenda of the Security Council for the month of June, when Albania will be in charge, however, Hoxha said that “I must emphasize once again that there are no similarities between the two countries”. “For the sake of truth, there is no similarity between history in Kosovo and any other country. Kosovo is no longer an issue for peace to be discussed, because today it is a state built with all institutions and is developing rapidly. We have not forgotten what happened, but we are moving forward! We will not get stuck in the past,” Hoxha said.