• Quint: All parties should refrain from use of force or actions that inflame tensions or promote conflict (media)
• New mayor of Mitrovica North expected to be sworn in today (media)
• Hovenier: Do not use violence to enter municipal buildings in the north (media)
• Vucic: We will not accept the mayors in the north (media)
• Despite challenges, negotiators optimistic about next steps of Western Balkans countries toward EU (RFE)
• Osmani thanks Menendez for “unwavering commitment to democracy” (media)
• Serwer: What the State Department forgot to say (peacefare.net)
• Kosovo govt against Lajcak’s ‘methodology’ for Article 7 implementation (Koha)
• Mustafa: Borrell must respect Mogherini’s commitment on Association (RTK)
• Limaj: Association will have executive powers; devil is in Article 7 (media)
• Kosovo court jails Naser Kelmendi for drug trafficking (BIRN)

Quint: All parties should refrain from use of force or actions that inflame tensions or promote conflict (media)

All news websites cover a statement on Kosovo issued by the Quint countries on Thursday. Below is the full statement:

On April 23, four mayoral elections and two municipal assembly elections were held in the north of Kosovo, consistent with Kosovo’s constitutional and legal requirements. Yet, following the boycott by a significant portion of the Serb community, the results are not a long-term political solution for these municipalities.

We call on all actors to urgently work together among all interested parties, including local communities, towards a solution that provides sustainable participatory representative democracy in these municipalities.

There should be no actions or initiatives – including by newly elected mayors and municipal assemblies – that do not serve the people or that could heighten tensions.  This includes exercising more than administrative powers and the process of taking office as there is no requirement that mayors be sworn in at municipal offices. All parties should refrain from the use of force or actions that inflame tensions or promote conflict.

We support the EU-facilitated Dialogue to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, including the need for urgent progress to establish the Community/Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.

New mayor of Mitrovica North expected to be sworn in today (media)

The new mayor of Mitrovica North, Erden Atic, is expected to swear in today in the municipal building. Atic, a candidate from the Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement, will swear in after the extraordinary elections on April 23 in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo where there was only a 3.4 voter turnout. The elections were boycotted by the Serb community.

Koha news website notes that it is still not known when the new mayors of Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan will swear in.

Hovenier: Do not use violence to enter municipal buildings in the north (media)

U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, said on Thursday that force should not be used to enter municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo. He made this statement, as the new mayors of the northern municipalities of Kosovo are expected to take the oath and start their work on Friday.

The new mayors, all from Albanian political parties, were elected in the extraordinary elections held in April, in the Serb-majority northern municipalities after the resignations of the previous mayors, as a sign of dissatisfaction with the Kosovo government’s decision for the re-registration of vehicles with Serbian licence plates.

Asked how the process might go on Friday, Hovenier said that “the United States believe it is important that this be done in a way that avoids conflict and increasing tensions in the north.”

“We expect the elected mayors to exercise a technical role, and not a political one, also to undertake actions that are not seen as escalating. For example, we don’t think it’s a good idea to use force to gain access to buildings that may not be accessible now,” he said.

Vucic: We will not accept the mayors in the north (media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that he asked Serbs in Kosovo to keep calm, before the swearing-in of the four mayors of the municipalities in the north of Kosovo.

“It will be held tomorrow. They will try to hold constitutive sessions in the building in the north of Mitrovica, for three municipalities, and elect fake mayors, with the support of the Quint, elected in fake elections,” Vucic told reporters in Novi Sad.

Vucic said on May 18 that the day before, he had a telephone conversation with the U.S. Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, with Counselor to the US State Department, Derek Chollet, and the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill. He said the meeting focused on “the tense situation in the north of Kosovo”, which, according to him, is constant.

“I am calling on the Serbs to keep the peace, as they will never be accepted as mayors,” Vucic said.

Despite challenges, negotiators optimistic about next steps of Western Balkans countries toward EU (RFE)

Top U.S. negotiators who have been working to de-escalate tensions and implement reforms in the Western Balkans told a U.S. Senate committee on May 18 that they remain optimistic about progress in the region toward EU membership despite “considerable” obstacles.

Derek Chollet, U.S. State Department counselor, and Gabriel Escobar, U.S. special envoy for the Western Balkans, faced questions from members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the progress of their efforts, which is part of an international diplomatic push to bring countries into the European Union and the transatlantic alliance.

Some senators expressed skepticism about overall progress against corruption and crime in the region and the process toward normalization of relations Kosovo and Serbia.

Chollet said the countries of the Western Balkans had come a long way since the wars in the 1990s and had tremendous potential for greater prosperity, “but they need our help to overcome still considerable obstacles.”

Among these are anti-democratic leaders, corruption, weak rule of law, lack of independent institutions, dependence on Russian energy, and disinformation, he said, calling on leaders in the region to show political courage to overcome them.

Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (Democrat-New Jersey) expressed concern about “not-in-good-faith actors,” with regard to the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as attempts to resolve diplomatic issues in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In response, Chollet pointed to significant efforts in the area of anti-corruption, which he said was the most important thing holding back progress in the region. He also noted that he supported recent legislation codifying the Biden administration’s executive order calling for sanctions on individuals opposing the fragile peace created by the Dayton agreement.

He said this would provide negotiators more tools to combat corruption in the region.

Chollet also said the United States was focused on the challenges in Bosnia, where “pervasive corruption, democratic backsliding, and increasingly inflammatory rhetoric by ethno-nationalist leaders are deeply troubling.”

He cited the threat of secession by the Serb-dominted entity in Bosnia and attempts to limit civil society and media freedoms as destabilizing and an attack on the foundations of the Dayton agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian War.

“We have made clear that we oppose such actions and will impose consequences,” he said without referring directly to Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, who has already been targeted by sanctions from the United States and Britain over alleged corruption and destabilizing actions, such as repeated threats to pursue independence and union with neighboring Serbia.

Escobar agreed that to make progress toward EU expansion to include Bosnia, targeted constitutional changes would be essential, and though those discussions have begun, getting all parties to agree to a single interpretation of the Dayton agreement would already pose a significant challenge.

Osmani thanks Menendez for “unwavering commitment to democracy” (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani took to Twitter on Thursday to thank U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez “for his leadership, tireless engagement & unwavering commitment to democracy in the Western Balkans”. “Grateful for his initiative for today’s Foreign Relations Committee hearing, which shed a crucial light on developments in the region,” Osmani tweeted.

Serwer: What the State Department forgot to say (peacefare.net)

Opinion piece by U.S. analyst on the Balkans, Daniel Serwer.

This morning’s Chollet and Escobar pas de deux at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee demonstrated that the Senators who attended really know something about the Balkans. The questioning was pertinent and at times incisive. The responses were less so.

As for the Belgrade/Pristina dialogue, Escobar claimed the February and March agreements on normalization are legally binding and being implemented, but when confronted with examples of President Vucic’s refusal to implement specific provisions he and Chollet retreated to bothsiderism. That was also their response on corruption in Belgrade as well. “We find it everywhere in the Balkans.” In recent memory, I can’t name a US official who has referred explicitly to the many and gross manifestations of organized crime and corruption in Serbia.

Chollet and Escobar were enthusiastic about the proposed Association of Serb Majority Municipalities (ASMM), claiming it would enable Serbs to integrate more into Kosovo and would have to be consistent with the Kosovo constitution. They ignored the Serb proposal for the ASMM, which is unequivocally intended to create an autonomous Serb entity, like Bosnia’s Republika Srpska, inside Kosovo, complete with executive powers. They were also enthusiastic for Serbia’s Open Balkans initiative, provided that it treats all the countries participating equally. They forgot to mention that Kosovo has not even been invited to Open Balkans because Belgrade doesn’t want to address it properly in the invitation.

Read full piece at: https://shorturl.at/gtERZ

Kosovo govt against Lajcak’s ‘methodology’ for Article 7 implementation (Koha)

The Kosovo government has ruled out the possibility of creating a methodology for the implementation of Article 7 of the Brussels Agreement, as proposed by the emissary for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak. In the Office of the Prime Minister, they have stated that a methodology cannot be built for the implementation of the point that speaks of “self-management of the Serbs”, without having an agreed plan for the full implementation of the Brussels Agreement.

“Mr. Lajcak has presented several documents or proposals. One for sequencing the implementation of the Basic Agreement, i.e. the entire agreement, one for the Draft Terms of Reference of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the implementation of the Basic Agreement, another for the Monitoring Committee for the implementation of the Declaration on the Enforced Disappeared and a methodology of the implementation of Article 7 of the Agreement, but not the draft statute of the Association of Municipalities with a Serb Majority,” said government spokesperson Perparim Kryeziu. “For the latter, our position has been that we cannot build a methodology for the implementation of one of the points of the Agreement, without having an agreed plan for the full implementation of the Agreement, as provided for in the Implementation Annex agreed in Ohrid. For this reason, this proposed methodology was not discussed at all in Monday’s meeting,” he said.

“Prime Minister Kurti has presented his vision for the implementation of Article 7 of the Basic Agreement inspired by the Croatian model of the National Council of Serbs (SNV) there, which model we believe is the right reference for the way forward and in accordance with Article 7 of the Basic Agreement,” Kryeziu said.

Mustafa: Borrell must respect Mogherini’s commitment on Association (RTK)

Eight years ago, then Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa had received a letter from the EU’s chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, as a guarantee that the Association of Serb-majority municipalities would not have executive powers.

In an interview with RTK on Thursday, Mustafa said that Serbia did not know about the letter he received from Mogherini the day before the signing of the agreement.

But does this document have an impact on the current circumstances? Former Prime Minister Mustafa declares that without any doubt there will be.

“They drafted the letter themselves; we didn’t formulate it for them, we just insisted on it.”

Asked if this document could have an impact on the current circumstances, Mustafa said “there must be an impact, because Mrs. Mogherini was a high official of the EU, as Borelli is today, and if Mr. Borell today makes a commitment, to the current government, or to Mr. Kurti, say, with an agreement that he makes with the EU, then we should not expect to have doubts, that the person who comes after Borelli will reject what a previous official did”.

He indicated that since Serbia once agreed that the draft of the statute should go to the Constitutional Court for review.

“In the agreement, we did not have self-management. In the agreement ratified by law in the Assembly, in 2013, is the formation of the Association, the document of 2015 specifies the principles for the Association, they are not principles for self-management, and self-management is a new component,” Mustafa said.

Limaj: Association will have executive powers; devil is in Article 7 (media)

NISMA leader Fatmir Limaj said in an interview with TeVe1 on Thursday that Article 7 of the Basic Agreement “is way more” than the 2015 agreement for the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. He said he was confident that in the Basic Agreement hides “the political territorial autonomy” of the Kosovo Serbs.

“Don’t forget, the Brussels and Ohrid agreement is way more than the 2015 agreement between Isa Mustafa and Mogherini. And I will say it again this man [referring to Prime Minister Albin Kurti] has burdened us and we will have an Association with fully executive competencies. And political territorial autonomy. The devil and the camouflage is in Article 7,” Limaj argued.

Kosovo court jails Naser Kelmendi for drug trafficking (BIRN)

Pristina Basic Court found Naser Kelmendi guilty on Thursday and sentenced him to four years and eight months of imprisonment on drug trafficking charges.

This was the second trial against Kelmendi and came more than five years after the same court sentenced him to six years of imprisonment on the same charges in February 2018. The verdict was overturned in August that year when Kosovo’s Court of Appeals ordered a retrial.

“Naser Kelmendi is [found] guilty because in July-August 2013 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting in an unauthorized manner and in cooperation with a person coded K2 and three other unidentified men, he committed a criminal charge by putting into circulation 25 kilograms of heroin,” Judge Suzana Cerkini said in the verdict.

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