Albanian Language Media:

• German and French chief advisers expected to visit Pristina and Belgrade (Klan)
• Ahmeti: Serbia has lost the battle in the Council of Europe (Kosova Press)
• KFOR is removing the last vehicles left on the road in the north (media)
• Trajkovic asks Vucic for explanation regarding her detention in Merdare (Sinjali)
• Weber: The association was the reason the dialogue stalled (Albanian Post)
• Bugajski: Association is a ticking bomb, a recipe for discord (Klan)
• “EU should give up equalising blame, in cases when Serbia is more to blame” (Albanian Post)
• EFJ raises alarm about attack on journalists in the north of Kosovo (RTK)

Serbian Language Media:

• EU: Situation in north of Kosovo still fragile, we are continuing talks with both sides (RTS, RTV, Kosovo Online)
• KFOR: We are conducting an operation to remove vehicles from the road in the north of Kosovo (RTS)
• Dacic: Another country will soon withdraw its recognition of Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug, RTS, media)
• Brnabic: We preserved peace in Kosovo-Metohija thanks to wise policy (Tanjug, media)
• Hill: There will be more US investments in Serbia this year (media)
• Chairman of the KJC: About the resignations of judges from the North in February (Radio Mitrovica sever)
• Kosovo Police detained, then released a physical education teacher from Kosovska Mitrovica (media)

Opinion:

• Will Kosovo’s war ever end? (UnHerd)

Albanian Language Media  

German and French chief advisers expected to visit Pristina and Belgrade (Klan)

The French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are expected to send their chief advisers, Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Plotner, to Pristina and Belgrade, this month, reports the news website. 

In their first visit on September 9, 2022, they were accompanied by European emissary Miroslav Lajcak, while this time they are expected to be accompanied by the American envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar.

Two European diplomats, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Klan Kosova on Monday that the arrival of the Euro-American delegations should be taken more seriously this time and that their demands for the parties this time are much more crystallised than during the September meetings, where the initial version of the EU proposal for Kosovo-Serbia agreement was proposed. 

Ahmeti: Serbia has lost the battle in the Council of Europe (Kosova Press)

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kreshnik Ahmeti states that there were a number of “non papers” that Serbia sent to Strasbourg in opposition to Kosovo’s application to the Council of Europe, but according to him, it has lost this battle. Ahmeti says that Kosovo has ensured the support in the votes as well as the legal interpretation that clarifies that there are no obstacles for the state in this direction.

He hopes for a constructive approach of Serbia but also of the European Union in the Brussels dialogue.

“We hope that we will have a more constructive approach from Belgrade in the dialogue, but also another approach from the European Union and other Western countries where the card of neutrality is not played in situations where it is clear who is guilty as we had the situation at the end of last year with the barricades, with the kidnapping and beating of Serbs by illegal structures in Belgrade, with attacks on journalists, with firearms attacks on Kosovo policemen, with attacks on EULEX patrols, attacks on KFOR, this was not peaceful at all and things should be said as they are and face the consequences as foreseen,” he says.

Ahmeti claims that Serbia has also not stopped the so-called de-recognition campaign for Kosovo but adds that it has not achieved any results.

There are 30 countries that Serbia has asked to derecognize Kosovo, and which the government of Kosovo has identified since the phase of signing the moratorium in Washington. But Ahmeti believes that the number is even greater. However, Ahmeti considers that the past year has been productive in terms of Kosovo’s bilateral relations, stressing that 111 agreements have been signed.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs also announced that they are interested in doubling the number of defence attachés from the current seven during this year.

KFOR is removing the last vehicles left on the road in the north (media)

KFOR has announced that they are removing some vehicles stuck in the north of Kosovo.

“The KFOR mission is conducting engineering operations in the north of Kosovo to remove some vehicles blocked on the road and to restore freedom of movement in accordance with its UN mandate,” the announcement reads.

The barricade set up by the local Serbs at “Kershi i Dudes” is still blocked, due to the two burned trucks.

The barricades in other parts of the north of Kosovo were all removed on December 29 of last year, after former policeman Dejan Pantic was sent from detention to house arrest. He was arrested on suspicion of attacking the office of the Municipal Electoral Commission in the north.

Trajkovic asks Vucic for explanation regarding her detention in Merdare (Sinjali)

The Kosovo Serb politician, Rada Trajkovic, has reminded the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, and the Serbian government that she has not forgotten the stop that was made on the Kosovo-Serbia border in the middle of December.

“For almost 20 days, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia and the BIA have refused to give an official explanation about the decision of Aleksandar Vucic to suspend the state, the Constitution and the rule of law just so that at the Merdare crossing, out of his personal whim, he would harass the woman who shook his power in Kosovo,” Trajkovic wrote. 

Weber: The association was the reason the dialogue stalled (Albanian Post)

Balkan expert and senior associate of the Council for Democratisation Policy in Berlin, Bodo Weber, in an interview with Albanian Post, said that the Association of Municipalities with a Serb Majority is one of the reasons why the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has stalled.

“The problem is that the EU avoided through two agreements, one in 2013 and the second in August 2015, to define the essence of the Association. And as the dialogue slipped into crisis, not only did the issue of the Association stall, but the Association was the reason the dialogue stalled,” Weber said.

“When the April Agreement was signed in 2013 and Belgrade, against the background of Western determination, basically accepted an independent Kosovo, the Association was given as a symbolic gesture to Belgrade, as something that would theoretically make it easier for Belgrade, which for three decades had convinced the Kosovo Serbs in the north that they were part of Serbia, to tell them that they will still end up in Kosovo”.

According to him, “to make things worse, another elephant is in the living room, that is, the mono-ethnic mechanisms provided for in the agreement are contrary to the European convention on human rights, i.e. the principle of non-discrimination “.

He thinks that the undefined issue of the Association, its powers, should be defined, but essentially two agreements will have to be partially revised.

“All this, in my opinion, can only be done within the framework of negotiations for a final, comprehensive agreement for the full normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which includes the formal recognition of Kosovo by Serbia.

Bugajski: Association is a ticking bomb, a recipe for discord (Klan)

According to Janusz Bugajski, journalist and expert on the dynamics in the Western Balkans, with many years of experience as a consultant on Eastern European issues in various American organisations and government agencies, including USAID and the United States Department of Defense, it is clear that the Administration the new American government led by Joe Biden is not as engaged in the Western Balkans as it should be.

“Unfortunately, the Biden administration is not sufficiently engaged in the region and perhaps does not fully understand that it can slide back into armed conflict if it is left to the EU to manage it,” Bugajski said in an exclusive interview with Albanian Post.

In his last visit to Kosovo, the special envoy of the USA for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Esocbar, had a clear request – Kosovo should immediately start talks on the formation of the Association of Municipalities with a Serb Majority.

However, he gave American assurances that the Association will not be a Republika Srpska, as the Kosovar political scene fears.

Therefore, the author of more than 20 books and senior member at the Jamestown Foundation, Bugajski, further elaborates for the Albanian Post that any ethnic or religious-based administrative body within Kosovo is a ‘recipe’ for disagreement, especially a ‘hole’ where to introduce Russia’s malignant influence through Serbia.

“The EU and the US would be ‘foolish’ to plant another ticking bomb in Kosovo after the mistake they made by creating ethnically based entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he added.

According to Bugajski, the French-German plan is too limited to ensure the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia through mutual recognition.

“EU should give up equalising blame, in cases when Serbia is more to blame” (Albanian Post)

Former ambassador of the United States of America to Kosovo Greg Delawie  said in an exclusive interview with the Albanian Post that the European Union should immediately give up the approach where they made Kosovo and Serbia equally responsible, when in fact the official Belgrade is much more guilty in a certain case.

He considers that the EU in the situation of Kosovo and Serbia should take the levers in hand and put the dialogue on the track, the last station of which is settlement of the Kosovo-Serbia dispute.

Delawie, who already teaches the subject of diplomacy at “George Mason” University, says that he has seen the French-German proposal published by the Albanian Post, a plan that proposes a solution according to the two-Germany model, and emphasised that he has always believed that precisely the Agreement between the Two Germanys could offer a useful model for resolving the Kosovo-Serbia dispute.

EFJ raises alarm about attack on journalists in the north of Kosovo (RTK)

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) raises the alert on the increasing threats surrounding journalists and media workers reporting on the tensions between Serbia and Kosovo from the North of Kosovo, and joins its affiliate the Association of Journalists in Kosovo (AJK) in asking the competent authorities, including the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), the Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the police, to take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of journalists reporting on the ground.

“Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have escalated recently, especially in the divided city of Mitrovica, with Belgrade (Serbia) accusing Pristina (Kosovo) of infringing on the rights of the Serbian community. New barricades were erected on Tuesday 27th, a few hours after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put the army on the highest level of alert. Recent shootings and roadblocks led the countries to believe a violent conflict could flare up soon: at the National Convention in the Parliament of Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that the tensions were “on the brink of armed conflict”.

While significant progress had been made when it comes to the safety of journalists in Kosovo, thanks to the work of the partners of the Council of Europe’s Platform on Safety of Journalists, the media sphere is endangered by the recent physical assaults and their implication on press freedom in the country, and on reporting on developments in the northern part of it.

‘We are relieved to hear that tension has decreased after the Serbs began dismantling roadblocks in northern Kosovo on 29 December, but diplomatic efforts must continue so that journalists can operate safely in the region,’ said the EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez. ‘We now need to make progress in the dialogue necessary to ensure the safety of journalists, but also to finally make progress on the many cases of impunity for the killings and disappearances of journalists in the region.’

Serbian Language Media 

EU: Situation in north of Kosovo still fragile, we are continuing talks with both sides (RTS, RTV, Kosovo Online)

Spokesperson for EU foreign policy, Nabila Massrali, says that the European Commission considers the situation in the north of Kosovo to be still very fragile. She pointed out that Brussels played an active role in the recent events in coordination with the USA and KFOR.

Maserati reiterated that the EC welcomes the de-escalation in Kosovo and the removal of the barricades. 

“The situation is really fragile, and we call for restraint on both sides so that the situation remains calm and avoiding all actions that would have the potential to return to violence and escalation,” said Massrali and added that EULEX will continue to monitor the situation in Kosovo.

She noted that the events of the previous days showed “how important it is to maintain irreversible progress towards the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina on the basis of the European proposal, which means that the previously reached agreements on the return of Serbs to Pristina institutions and the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities should be implemented without delay “.

She stated that the EU will continue to talk with both sides, as she stated, and that the next meetings will be announced when the time is right.

KFOR: We are conducting an operation to remove some vehicles from the road in the north of Kosovo (RTS)

The KFOR mission announced on Twitter that it is conducting engineering operations in the north of Kosovo, in order to remove some vehicles on the road where barricades were set.

KFOR’s on Twitter states that the goal of the engineering operations that the mission is conducting in the north of Kosovo is to restore freedom of movement.

“The KFOR mission is conducting engineering operations in the north of Kosovo, in order to remove some vehicles blocking the road and restore freedom of movement in accordance with its UN mandate,” stated KFOR.

Dacic: Another country will soon withdraw its recognition of Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug, RTS, media)

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic told Tanjug that soon another country will withdraw its recognition of ”the so-called Kosovo”, reported RTS. 

Serbia previously announced that at a certain moment it will announce which countries have withdrawn recognition of ”the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo and Metohija”, in addition to those that are known to have done so.

Dacic previously announced that Serbia this year also would continue the difficult diplomatic and political struggle related to Serbia’s defence of territorial integrity and sovereignty, recalled RTS.

Brnabic: We preserved peace in Kosovo-Metohija thanks to wise policy (Tanjug, media)

Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said that only thanks to President Aleksandar Vucic’s wise policy peace has been preserved and an armed conflict in Kosovo-Metohija averted, reported agency Tanjug. 

In an interview to Tanjug, she said she expected further instability in Kosovo, and that last year had been marked by instability generated by Pristina’s PM Albin Kurti through his unilateral moves and terror against the Serbs.

“Last year was a year of instability created by Albin Kurti through his unilateral moves, a year in which his first move was to abolish the Kosovo-Metohija Serbs’ right to vote and ban them from taking place in a rule of law referendum in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija, thereby not only violating the Brussels Agreement but practically aiming at abolishing it,” the PM said.

She said that, unfortunately, this had not been met with a too strong reaction by the Quint and EU states and that, in consequence, Kurti had done the same again in April by banning the Kosovo Serbs from voting in Serbian elections.

“That was the start of a kind of a spiral of violence that led us to the very brink of armed conflict. As PM, I want to thank President Aleksandar Vucic for the fact that conflicts were averted several times in 2022 only through his calm reactions, enormous tolerance, and a political wisdom not to react to whatever provocations Albin Kurti makes,” Brnabic noted.

She said she was not sure she was able to find an explanation for the lack of engagement by some international partners on preventing such an escalation of violence and provocations.

She also said she could not explain the international partners’ lack of engagement on ensuring the implementation of the 2013 Brussels Agreement.

Hill: There will be more US investments in Serbia this year (media)

US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill said that US companies see Serbia as an inspiration and that there will be more US investments in the country in 2023.

“There is no question at all about the fact that there will be even more investments in 2023. US companies see what is going on in Serbia and see an inspiration in that,” Hill said in a message posted on the Twitter account of the US embassy in Belgrade, media cited.

Chairman of the KJC: About the resignations of judges from the North in February (Radio Mitrovica sever)

The resignation of judges from the North of Kosovo will be decided during February, announced the chairman of the Kosovo Judicial Council, Albert Zogaj, emphasising that they handled the situation in the Basic Court in the northern part of Mitrovica very carefully, reported Radio Mitrovica sever, citing Gazeta Express.

Zogaj confirmed that the salaries of judges from the North who resigned at the beginning of November, as part of the mass abandonment of institutions by Serbs, were suspended.

At the same time, however, as Gazeta Express reported, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against those who engaged in political activities.

“Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against all judges and staff who were involved in political activities that are contrary to legal and constitutional responsibility and judicial ethics, and everyone will take responsibility. Even in a situation where we would approve all resignations, some would not be approved because appropriate disciplinary measures must be taken against some,” he said.

At the same time, Zogaj said that they could not announce competitions for vacancies to replace judges, without first approving the resignations.

“First, we will have a process regarding resignations, and then their replacement, the increase in capacity does not imply that judges have been replaced – no, we have simply increased the capacity to face the work and services in this period. I believe that it will be discussed during the month of February, because January is the month of interviews for new judges in the KJC,” emphasised Zogaj.

Kosovo Police detained, then released a physical education teacher from Kosovska Mitrovica (media)

Kosovo police detained a physical education teacher from northern Kosovska Mitrovica this morning at Jarinje for an alleged attack on Albanian journalists in that city, but he was released after a few hours, his lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic confirmed for N1.

I.M. gave a statement at the Kosovo police base in Jarinje and said that he had nothing to do with the alleged attack, and then continued his way to central Serbia, said Vlajic.

Opinion 

Will Kosovo’s war ever end? (UnHerd)

There is a strict timetable to crises in Kosovo. It runs like this. First, after a disagreement between Serbia’s leader and Kosovo’s, a deadline is set by the Kosovo side to do this or that, or barricades are erected in Serbian-inhabited north Kosovo. The diplomats go into hyperdrive, harsh words are spoken, and the Serbian Army deploys to the border, making sure that clips of military convoys circulate on social media. Serbian nationalists fantasise that they are actually going to do something and Serbian tabloids froth that Kosovo-Albanians are about to wage war against their people.

At this point, parts of the Western media wake up and journalists, who never seem to clock that Nato has thousands of troops in Kosovo pledged to protect it from Serbia, think that it might invade. Then, deal done, the barricades come down until the next time.

Today, we are at the fag end of the latest cycle. The barricades which stood for 20 days have come down and everyone has gone home — but this time, it was a pretty close-run thing. The barricades were in fact trucks blocking the roads in some 14 places. Just over a week ago, as I visited one in the village of Rudare, a colleague pointed out a petrol tanker. People were not very happy about it, he said. It was full; if there were a violent incident, it could explode.

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