Albanian Language Media:

• Lajcak for dialogue: Current political calendar is a chance for normalisation (Koha)
• Rama praises Vucic: He gave a clear signal of peace in relation to Kosovo (Koha)
• Trade unionists meet LDK’s Abdixhiku (media)
• Municipalities give the government until September 5 to execute the salaries (media)
• COVID-19: 67 positive cases no deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Summit of leaders of the Open Balkans: Regional cooperation important in the food and energy supply crisis (NMagazin, Beta)
• Szijarto: If it depended on Hungary, the entire Western Balkans would already be in the EU (FoNet, Beta)
• Brnabic to visit Kosovo on Monday (NMagazin, Beta)
• Petkovic: EU representatives either do not know or deliberately selectively read the agreements (RTS)
• Vucic and Pahor on Saturday in Belgrade (Danas)
• EU spokeswoman: Ashton will not join Lajcak’s team, they are in regular contact (Kosovo Online)
• Bus from Subotica returned by police from the Bela Zemlja crossing (KiM radio, Kontakt plus radio)

Opinion:

• Lazarevic: Kurti’s video messages will not persuade Serbs to re-register, but Belgrade’s decisions, if any (Danas, KoSSev)

International:

• Open Balkan plus Hungary, Turkey meet to discuss cooperation in Belgrade (euractive.com)

Albanian Language Media  

Lajcak for dialogue: The current political calendar is a chance for normalisation (Koha)

The EU’s special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak said that this year and the next year are crucial for the normalisation of relations between Pristina and Belgrade.

Lajcak told the APA news agency on Friday that it would be a mistake for the two countries not to take advantage of this period of time when there are no elections in Kosovo, Serbia, the EU or the USA.

“This and next year are crucial and unique and it would be a big mistake if they didn’t take advantage of this period of time. We now have a unique chance in the political calendar, something we haven’t had for at least ten years. From now until 2024, we don’t have elections in Serbia, as well as in Kosovo, and there are no elections in Europe or in the USA,” Lajcak said.

Rama praises Vucic: He gave a clear signal of peace in relation to Kosovo (Koha)

The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, has given credit to the initiative “Open Balkans” for many processes, including reaching the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. At the summit being held in Belgrade, Rama said that Kosovo would not have had to waste so much time to solve the issue of movement with identity cards if it had been part of the “Open Balkans”.

The Albanian Prime Minister has thanked the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, as according to him, the latter has clearly shown that he is for peace yesterday with the calm situation that has been shown on the Kosovo-Serbia border.

“Yesterday could have been another day where the media was filled with disturbing news about what is happening between the Serbia-Kosovo border. Yesterday showed what the path and solution of the Open Balkans is. I am proud to say that even the solution of movement with identity cards is a solution from the Open Balkans. There would be no need to spend so much time and energy if Kosovo and other countries were also in the Open Balkans. I express my respect to the president of Serbia who, by materializing this solution, has given a very clear signal to everyone that the first choice is peace, the solution for the people. This does not solve everything, nor does it make the issue that divides us a resolved one, but this is the way”, Rama stressed.

Trade unionists meet LDK’s Abdixhiku (media)

Lumir Abdixhiku leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) received in a meeting the head of the the Union of Education, Science and Culture of Kosovo (UESCK), Rrahman Jashari.

Abdixhiku said that they consider that the dialogue between the trade unions and the government of Kosovo is the basis of the democratic social functioning of Kosovo, to overcome the created situation.

“We need dialogue and understanding. The last thing we consider is the criminalization of our teachers in this severe economic crisis,” Abdixhiku said after the meeting. He added that LDK understands the demands of teachers, however he added that students’ return to school is also necessary.

Jasharaj from UESCK has criticized the Government for the created situation.

He requested from Abdixiku and the LDK MPs not to stop working and together with them to find an open door in the government. “The government is trying to suppress the union voice”, Jasharaj said.

The municipalities give the government until September 5 to execute the salaries (media)

The full non-execution of salaries for the employees of the pre-university education sector and the municipal administration, was the main concern of the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo in the meeting held on Thursday afternoon.

The President of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, Sazan Ibrahimi, told Ekonomia Online that the preparations for the new school start were made by the municipalities of Kosovo, but that this did not happen due to the strike. He addressed criticism to the parties, which he said are not dialoguing in order to find a solution.

“After the statements of the Minister of Finance Hekuran Murati regarding the partial payment to civil servants at the local level, the Board of the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo invited the Council of Mayors for an urgent meeting. The meeting was held yesterday where the representatives of the 22 municipalities of Kosovo participated, and all the mayors expressed a sincere concern regarding the created situation,” Ibrahimi said.

He said that the central level has been given a deadline until September 5 to execute the salaries, otherwise, they will take other legal steps.

COVID-19: 67 positive cases no deaths (media)

Kosovo’s Ministry of Health announced on Friday that 67 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in Kosovo during the last 24 hours. According to the announcement, no case of death was recorded. The number of active cases is 885.

Serbian Language Media 

Summit of leaders of the Open Balkans: Regional cooperation important in the food and energy supply crisis (NMagazin, Beta)

Dimitar Kovacevski, North Macedonia Prime Minister, said today in Belgrade, at the Summit of leaders of the “Open Balkans”, that this initiative was particularly important in the situation of the global crisis in the supply of food and energy.

“Our gathering and working together is the engine that pushes us through the challenges of the coming winter. Today it is clear that North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia have taken a key step at a key time. We have built trust between friendly countries. While some others think this can divert us from the European path, I think this will strengthen us and make life easier for our citizens,” he said.

He pointed out that special agreements would ensure the stability of the supply of food and energy in the region and help the neighbours.

“We will help each other through all the challenges and disruptions we might encounter in the markets of agricultural products. We will provide enough wheat, flour, corn, salt, and other products,” Kovacevski said.

He stated that there would be gas interconnection and cooperation in the construction of green energy sources and reminded that an agreement was signed for protection in case of emergency situations.

The Prime Minister said that he was glad to see the foreign ministers of Hungary and Turkey at today’s summit, and that he hoped to see the representatives of Greece and Italy as well.

“An open Balkan is necessary, and I hope that we will continue to make progress. In the past years, I could not understand at all when representatives of some countries that do not have borders between them come here and finance border management projects. I think that we should totally raise the ramps,” Kovacevski said.

Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, said that it was necessary for BiH to join the “Open Balkans” initiative.

“I am here on behalf of the business community, which needs unity, space and economic freedoms that are also valid in the EU. I am only a guest here. It is quite certain that Bosnia and Herzegovina will join this process, it does not bring anything bad to anyone. Today, only two people blocked the process. But that will pass, the elections are coming. It was wonderful at dinner yesterday, but we could not try wines and food from Bosnia and Herzegovina, because we are not a member. That is what makes me unhappy,” he said.

He thanked the members of the “Open Balkans” for keeping the door open to other countries in the region and not setting political conditions.

He added that the largest number of citizens and the business community in BiH were committed to this initiative and that he hoped that there will be better results in mutual trade with the countries of the BiH region.

The Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, said that the citizens of the region have had enough of the policies of the past and the harmful effects of nationalism, and that they deserve to make their lives easier.

He pointed out that it was nice to see people at the same table, and that while the war was raging, topics that were of vital importance to citizens were being discussed in Belgrade.

“It’s nice to see that with us today are representatives of the EU and NATO countries, as well as businessmen. We have tried everything in our history, quarrels, and conflicts, we just have not tried to cooperate. It is time to choose peace and progress, and for greater flexibility of borders does not mean changing them, but a greater chance for reconciliation. I see this initiative as very successful, and in a short time it has proven that it can provide security,” he said.

Abazovic added that it was important that the ministers of foreign affairs of Hungary and Turkey were at the summit, because in the global system they were friends and neighbours.

“I see that we can all cooperate together, and this initiative must be inclusive. Those who are not at the table today are welcome. Montenegro is not yet a member either, but whatever it will be, we are directed to each other. If someone chooses to wait four hours at the border of Montenegro to come to the sea and leave his money, or to pass through the border like in the EU, I think the vast majority of citizens would choose the latter,” he said.

He praised the success of the members of the initiative in organizing the International Wine Fair, which opened yesterday at the Belgrade Fair and lasts until September 4.

He believed that such a manifestation in the field of tourism or ecology can be organized in Montenegro.

The head of Turkish diplomacy, Mevlut Cavusoglu, assessed that the “Open Balkans” initiative ensures a secure future for all countries.

“The war in Europe is an alarm for all of us, and we see how vulnerable we are in terms of energy. There is no recipe other than solidarity, and we in Turkey are doing everything we can to help our neighbours in the Balkans to secure gas quantities,” he said.

As he said, no one could answer why Skopje and Tirana waited a long time for the status of candidate for EU membership.

“I don’t even want to mention the possibility of Turkish membership in the EU, and I hope that the Open Balkans will promote the integration of the region,” he said.

Cavusoglu said that there was still much that needed to be done in the region, but that there were two challenges.

“There is a political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Turkish president will visit Sarajevo next week, among other things. And the second is the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and there it was shown that we must concentrate on common interests, not what separates us,” he said.

Szijarto: If it depended on Hungary, the entire Western Balkans would already be in the EU (FoNet, Beta)

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Peter Szijarto, assessed today in Belgrade that the current crisis in Ukraine showed that the EU needed the Western Balkans and that if it depended on Hungary, the region would already be part of the Union, reported N1.

With the creation of the Open Balkans, the necessary steps towards integration into the Union have been made, and it was time for Brussels to act, said Szijarto at the Summit of the Open Balkans initiative.

He noted that the war in Ukraine, its economic impact, and the devastating crisis in energy supply, created an environment in Europe that ended in a catastrophic weakening of the EU.

It was true that EU leaders could not prevent the people of Europe from paying the price of a war for which they were not responsible. In the given circumstances, we believe that we could avoid further problems and the impact of war, he pointed out.

Europe definitely needed the Western Balkans and the integration of the countries sitting at this table today can contribute to European security in three aspects – physical, food and energy supplies.

Szijarto thanked Turkey for mediation in reaching an agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain, Serbia for protecting the borders from new migratory movements, while he especially pointed to the important decision to build the Turkish Stream.

Hungary would be in trouble with gas supply if we had not built that gas pipeline with Turkey, Serbia, and Bulgaria. At this moment, it was the only safe and reliable route for gas supply, Szijarto said.

Brnabic to visit Kosovo on Monday (NMagazin, Beta)

Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, and the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, will visit Kosovo on Monday, September 5, where they will visit Mitrovica, Zvecan and Leposavic and talk with the local population, it was announced today, reported portal NMagazin.

According to the announcement, the visit will begin on Monday morning, with a visit to Kosovska Mitrovica, where Brnabic will visit the multimedia center and the Spiritual Academy, after which the plan was to visit the Banjska monastery in the municipality of Zvecan. In the municipality of Leposavic, she will visit the socially vulnerable family, which will move into a new house built with funds from the Government of Serbia. She will end her visit to the municipality of Leposavic with a tour of family farms.

“The visit of the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, to Kosovo and Metohija aims to convey messages for the preservation of peace and stability, within the framework of which is the only way to achieve the survival and survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” the announcement read, cited the portal. 

It was announced that the visit was announced 72 hours earlier, which was in accordance with the Agreement on Official Visits.

Petkovic: EU representatives either do not know or deliberately selectively read the agreements (RTS)

The statement of the spokesperson of the European Commission calling on Pristina to extend the deadline for re-registration of vehicles with KM plates showed that the EU representatives either do not know or deliberately selectively read the agreements and partially quote them, said the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, reported RTS.

”Namely, since the spokesperson of the European Commission in his announcement today refers to the agreement from 2016, I will remind him that it is about the “Agreement regarding the finalization of the implementation of the Agreement on Freedom of Movement from 2011 – Brussels, September 14, 2016″ in which in point 4, an extension of the deadline for vehicle re-registration is foreseen , but I will also remind him of what he did not say, which is that at the very beginning of that same point, the use of status-neutral KS plates is mentioned. Also, I will remind the spokesperson of point 8 of the same document, which he also did not mention, and in which it is said that re-registration will not be applied to those vehicles for which the sticker regime is valid, according to the statement of the director of the Office for KiM,” stated the announcement of the Office for KiM Director. 

”It is also well known to everyone that based on the Conclusions from Brussels of September 30, 2021, on the use of the sticker regime, Pristina also applied stickers to vehicles with KM plates. With that, it admitted both and formally that the re-registration process cannot apply to those plates,” added the statement. 

”Therefore, in accordance with the provisions, KM plates are legal and legitimate plates for the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, which, in accordance with the Conclusions of September 30, 2021, are covered with stickers, like every other plate of the Republic of Serbia that enters the territory of the province.”

”Therefore, as legal, and legitimate registration marks, there is neither an obligation nor a need to replace or re-register KM plates on the so-called RKS license plates, especially in the situation when Pristina illegally abolished the status-neutral KS license plates in 2020.”

”On the other hand, the question arises whether the EU agreements are valid in their entirety or only in the part that corresponds to Pristina’s views?”

”Belgrade will always and everywhere insist that the agreements reached in Brussels are respected in their entirety, not selectively or partially, as is done by Pristina, which has refused to form the Community of Serbian Municipalities for almost ten years,” concluded the statement of the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, cited RTS.

Vucic and Pahor on Saturday in Belgrade (Danas)

As part of preparations for the 11th summit of the Brdo-Brioni process, on September 12, President of Slovenia Borut Pahor will meet with President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday, September 3, in Belgrade, Pahor’s cabinet announced, reported Danas daily.

On Wednesday, September 7, Pahor will meet Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in Pristina.

The participation in the summit was confirmed by the President of Croatia Zoran Milanovic, Bajram Begaj of Albania, three members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zeljko Komsic, Milorad Dodik and Sefik Dzaferovic, Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro, President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic. 

As stated, the three-day meeting will be dedicated to the analysis of current events in the region, and an invitation will be sent to the members and institutions of the European Union for the urgent expansion of the Union to the Western Balkans, the statement added.

EU spokeswoman: Ashton will not join Lajcak’s team, they are in regular contact (Kosovo Online)

European Union spokeswoman Paloma Caballero said that former EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Catherine Ashton will not join the team of Miroslav Lajcak, the EU’s special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, reported portal Kosovo Online, citing the Albanian Post. 

“EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak is in regular contact with previous facilitators and people with deep knowledge in the dialogue, including Baroness Ashton. However, she is not joining Lajcak’s team,” Caballero told the Albanian media.

The vice president of the Democratic Union of Kosovo Ljutfi Haziri said on August 30 that the first deputy prime minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, travelled to London to meet with Baroness Ashton, with whom he discussed the dialogue process, according to the media report.

The meeting with Ashton was confirmed by Bislimi himself. According to him, from that meeting with Ashton, he realized that there were big differences between what was discussed in Brussels about the Community/Association of Serbian Municipalities as an idea and what Serbia was propagating about it to other countries.

“The association never has the idea of becoming a defender of the rights of Serbs, the courts are the defenders of rights, not non-governmental organizations,” Bislimi said, cited the portal.

Bus from Subotica returned by police from the Bela Zemlja crossing (KiM radio, Kontakt plus radio)

The bus of the “Subotica trans” transport company, which was supposed to transport children from Kosovska Pomoravlje to their peers in Subotica, was stopped this morning at the Bela Zemlja – Konculj crossing, because the Kosovo police did not allow it to continue its journey due to allegedly improper documentation, reported KiM radio.

According to the travel organizer Zoran Maksimovic from the humanitarian organization “Dečija radost” (Children’s joy) in Gnjilane, the Kosovo police officer told the bus driver that he did not have adequate documents used in international passenger traffic and ordered him to return the vehicle from the checkpoint.

“This is the fourteenth time we have organized the action ‘To children of Kosmet with a smile, together in the school desks’ in which we introduce children from Kosovo and Metohija to their peers from Subotica, with whom they attend school together, get to know the cultural and historical sights of Vojvodina and socialize. We never had problems with transport documentation before,” said Maksimovic.

Around 30 children from several places: Babin Most, Pones, Silovo, Pasjane, Kmetovce, Korminjane, Vrbovac, Grncar, Binac and Klokot were waiting early this morning, as planned, for transport to Silovo, but due to the decision of the Kosovo Police, parents and organizers were forced to transport the children “as they were able to” to the Bela Zemlja – Konculj crossing, which they crossed on foot, boarded a bus that was waiting for them on the other side of the checkpoint and continued their journey towards Subotica, with the visible dissatisfaction of those present, reported KiM radio. 

Opinion 

Lazarevic: Kurti’s video messages will not persuade Serbs to re-register, but Belgrade’s decisions, if any (Danas, KoSSev)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti addressed with a video message in Serbian, in which he called the owners of vehicles with Serbian license plates to re-register them to ”RKS – Republic of Kosovo” markings. Tatjana Lazarevic, editor of the KoSSev portal, told Danas daily that this would not attract Serbs to re-registration, but that Belgrade decisions would. 

“The decisions from Belgrade will ‘attract’ them, even if they go to the detriment of citizens in the North. This is what the decade-long Brussels process has shown so far. What Kurti’s video messages could do is to correctly convey the message to the Serbs in the North, and at least verbally cleansed of populism and propaganda,” said Lazarevic.

She added that Kurti’s argument ”did not hold” that the Serbian plates were from the time of Milosevic, because, she said, those existed even before Milosevic, that is, they are the legacy of Yugoslavia.

“With the short-lived exception of a few years in the eighties of the last century, KM have always been the designations for Kosovska Mitrovica,” said the editor of KoSSev. 

Commenting on the information presented by the PM of Kosovo, that only two percent of vehicles have plates with Serbian markings, she said that she assumed that this information was correct, but also that as “the English say – blind as a fact”.

“Around 10,000 vehicles with KM plates in the North alone was not a small number for smooth functioning in the North at the moment. In addition, over the years, precisely to facilitate living conditions, a significant number of Serbs in this so-called Brussels time, due to the impossibility of travelling south of the Ibar with KM plates, procured a spare vehicle in the same household with RKS plates, and an even more significant number registered their vehicles in cities in central Serbia instead of KM. With these plates, you can travel from South Mitrovica and beyond. Do not forget the issue of passports that are issued by the Coordination Administration for Serbian citizens in Kosovo and that are not visa-free, which is why many Serbian citizens from Kosovo ‘get by’ by applying for passports as residents of the cities of central Serbia,” the interviewee of Danas pointed out.

She believed that the bottom line was that the decisions for the citizens of Serbia in Kosovo were implemented against their will and that the citizens were previously deprived of the power to resist such decisions. At the same time, they have been instrumentalized for decisions that are conducted by someone else on their behalf.

Lazarevic also referred to Petkovic’s statement that Kurti was trying to cover up the energy collapse, saying that the Kosovo prime minister has no need to deal with the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija to cover up something.

“With the Prime Minister of Kosovo, completing the integration of the North and establishing, as it is presented from Pristina, the full state and territorial integrity of Kosovo in the North is the primary strategic goal. I would also say that it is a strong vertical when it comes to his belief. On the other hand, there is a significant number of those here among the Serbs in Kosovo who do not recognize that, unfortunately, and with the Serbian authorities, if verbal slogans are excluded,” said Lazarevic.

International 

Open Balkan plus Hungary, Turkey meet to discuss cooperation in Belgrade (euractive.com)

The ‘Vision of Summer’ wine fair took place in Belgrade on Thursday, organised within the framework of the Open Balkans initiative, a somewhat controversial regional collaboration between Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia.

According to the Serbian presidency, the leaders of the initiative also hosted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut, Çavuşoğlu, for the first time.

Also present was the outgoing prime minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zoran Tegeltija.

During his speech at the fair, Rama said that exports with Serbia have increased in recent months.

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