LOCAL PRESS

Miscevic: Now is the time to accelerate negotiations (RTS)

The Head of the EU negotiations team Tanja Miscevic told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that the recently reached agreement on the judiciary in Brussels can only encourage and accelerate Serbia’s EU process, adding that Serbia has completed 30 negotiations chapters to this date. “Our assessment is that a great job was done with the agreement on the judiciary. With the initialing of the agreement one more political condition has been fulfilled, and the condition is normalization of relations. I will remind you that we have completed 30 negotiating chapters and I think there is not a single country that is prepared so well to join the EU,” says Miscevic. She notes that the negotiating process with the EU is both political and technical, adding that Serbia had demonstrated resoluteness in the EU integration process with the process of initialing the agreement on the judiciary which was, as she puts it, a hard job. Asked whether Pristina can slow down Serbia on the EU path, Miscevic underlines that both Belgrade and Pristina had decided with the Brussels agreement not to slow down each other on the EU path. She points out that Serbian representatives conducted important talks with the Bundestag representatives, with the goal of acquainting them where Serbia is at present on its EU path and how far they have gone with the planned reforms. “Bundestag representatives didn’t tells us anything specifically nor did they give their opinion,” says Miscevic, adding that from her past experience she knows that this situation shows that now is the right moment for accelerating the EU integration process. Speaking about the negotiating chapters, Miscevic underlines that the negotiations do not imply open chapters, but work on these chapters and their deeper analysis. She noted that we have been ready since August last year to open Chapter 32 on financial control, and adds she expects Chapters 23 and 24, for which other versions of action plans are being done at the moment, to be opened by the middle of this year.

Drecun: Right time for opening Chapter 35 (RTS)

The Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun said on Thursday that it is the right time for opening Chapter 35 on Kosovo in Serbia’s EU accession talks, which would be a boost to the process of normalization relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Drecun said that this would reduce Pristina’s room for manoeuver for blackmailing and postponing the implementation of parts of the Brussels agreement, especially those relating to the establishment of the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO). “I think that, after the signing of the agreement on the judiciary, the EU could give the go-ahead for Chapter 35 because the opening of that chapter would also stimulate Belgrade to continue normalizing the relations,” Drecun told reporters in the parliament. It would then be clear to Pristina that it cannot use Chapter 35 to slow down the process, blackmail Belgrade or have unrealistic demands, he noted. “As regards the progress in the normalization process, which is related to Chapter 35, one should take into account that everything does not depend on Belgrade. For the progress and implementation of the Brussels agreement to happen, Pristina has to take an active and constructive part in that,” Drecun said. He said that the formation of the ZSO is the biggest issue that is yet to be addressed. „And there we will have a political fight over the formulation of a charter of that Union, as it is evident that Pristina would like to marginalize that idea,” he concluded.

Serbs thinking of freezing contacts with Pristina (Politika, by Biljana Mitrinovic)

The Serbian government adopted yesterday the report on the reaching of the agreement on the judiciary and examined the ways of how to compensate for the difference in the amount due to the Serb judicial employees who will be in the Kosovo system, because the salaries in Kosovo and Metohija are much lower than in the rest of Serbia. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced that a new law will most probably be adopted in the parliament. The quota of Serbian judicial employees will also include members of other minority communities, like the Bsoniaks and Goranis, who have so far done their job well. The Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) is one of the important issues that the Serbian side wishes to launch during the talks that are to follow, and which will be held, as Politika has learned in the negotiating team, within a month at the latest. In view of the ZSO, the Serbian side is facing the “hard” stand of the Pristina negotiators, supported by the US, not to give the future organization greater competencies than what the NGOs have. US representatives insist that the future ZSO operates according to the valid Kosovo laws. However, the Serbian negotiating team has managed, prior to the signing of the Brussels agreement, to throw out of the draft text the formulation that the ZSO will operate “in accordance with the existing laws”. The Plan for the implementation of the Brussels agreement states “the adaptation of the legal framework in Pristina”, so they even established there a legal group for amending regulations, but hasn’t met after the first meeting, both due to the crisis of the political government, and due to the assurances by part of the Western embassies that they will not have to change the legislation. As regards the other topic – property – which is of utmost importance for the Serbian team, the Serbian side possesses complete documentation of the Fund of the Federation for the Development of Insufficiently Developed Regions, which specifically notes how much each of the former Yugoslav republics was investing into Kosovo and Metohija.

The representatives of the Serb (Srpska) List had a meeting on Wednesday with the Prime Minister and they agreed to try to resolve the problem of the dismissal of the Serb Minister Aleksandar Jablanovic, and if this doesn’t occur, they will decide next week for the Serb ministers, deputies and mayors of the Serb majority municipalities to cease communication with the institutions in Pristina. The source from the Serb List confirmed for Politika that Thaqi violated the coalition agreement with the Serb List representatives when the government was formed. One of the main issues was to cease privatization of companies in Serb regions, and precisely on the day of the talks in Brussels officials of the Kosovo Privatization Agency entered two companies in central Pomoravlje.

Jahjaga appoints Serb judges

A source close to the negotiating team claims that Serb judges will take a status neutral oath and that the supporting documentation and the entire procedure will also be status neutral. Judges and prosecutors are elected and removed by the Kosovo judicial council and the Kosovo prosecution council that will have a Serb member. The Kosovo president signs the appointments. The Serb source claims that Serb judges will deliver verdicts in standard form, and when they are sent to Pristina, they will have a cover carrying the symbol of the “Republic of Kosovo”. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said yesterday in the assembly in Pristina that the text of the oath to be taken by judges and prosecutors had been agreed upon.

Dragisic: Exodus is organized (Beta)

Professor at the Faculty for Security Zoran Dragisic has said that the mass migration from Kosovo and Metohija to the EU is an organized act of crime groups.He also pointed out that this does not represent a major security threat to Serbia. “The services should answer what is behind this mass migration, because it is characteristic of war or a major catastrophe, which are not present in Kosovo at this moment. Kosovo was also poor ten months and two years ago, but this was not happening. I’m afraid it has been organized by criminal groups,” said Dragisic. According to him, the motives of the organizers of the migration differ from the motives of the migrants. “It is quite clear that those trying to leave are leaving because of social motives, but the one who organized them did not do it for that reason, but for something else,”
said this expert. Dragisic said that frequent illegal crossings of the border with Hungary do not represent a security risk for Serbia, because it is mainly families with children, and that those Kosovo Albanians fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State leave Serbia through other channels. “It is absolutely clear that our police forces, as soon as the problem began to appear, put it under control, that all these people who pass through our territory are under the watchful eye of security services and the police, so some serious criminals would not take such risks,” said Dragisic.

Exodus (Novosti, commentary by Predrag Vasiljevic)

More Albanians have fled from the province of Kosovo-Metohija after the Brussels agreement than during the time of Milosevic’s regime and all post-Milosevic governments in Serbia.

Albanian historians claim that the exodus underway is not remembered by this nation since the Ottoman times. The refugees have not yet been counted, but the guess is that there are more than hundred thousand, in two months.

The biggest crowd in Pristina is presently at the bus station in front of the bus for Belgrade. A seat in it is worth a fortune, but resolute Albanians with children, accept to even stand. Towards freedom.

While agreements are reached in Brussels, the Kosovo poor rushed en masse to EU countries. First and foremost to Germany.

Yet, now there are no courageous and deeply pitying world reporters to record the tears in the eyes of the mothers who are trying to reach, with babies in their hands, Hungary, through the thickets around the Horgos border crossing with Hungary. They are not there, because it is not the Serbs who are pursuing the Albanians.

They are not leaving because of Sloba Milosevic and Mira Markovic, Vojslav Kostunica and Boris Tadic. They are certainly not running because of Vucic. No.

Tens of thousands of Albanians are running away from Thaqi, Haradinaj, Mustafa, Kurti.

They are running away from poverty and infectious diseases brought to them by the new political and drug-trafficking elite.

They are running away from the hopelessness, chaos, and evil kneaded by the fraudulent ‘state’, which they themselves unilaterally declared.

They are running away from the self-deception that Kosovo, as soon as it cleanses itself of Serbs, will become a Euro-Atlantic paradise.

They are running away from a totalitarian society, steeped in hatred towards neighbors, where churches are desecrated and Serb ministers thrown out of the government by way of stones and teargas.

They are running away from themselves.

It is not a moment to ridicule the fate of the unfortunate. This is a warning that we must not walk out on the Serbs and leave them to the whim of the demolished “Kosovo society”. If it has become unbearable to live in “independent” Kosovo, let us show that life is possible in the southern Serbian province.

REGIONAL PRESS

Bosic: SDS does not know which ministries they will get (Fena/Oslobodjenje)

The appointment of the Prime Minister definitely unlocked the formation of a government, i.e. Council of Ministers, and that is now an unstoppable process, Mladen Bosic, the President of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) said in an interview for Oslobodjenje. “Mr. Zvizdic will be at the head of the Council of Ministers, regardless of however the Council may look like. Practically, thus opens some serious issues of how to do it as soon as possible and which people will enter the Council of Ministers. It is our wish to make it as short as possible, but there are procedures, even when there is an agreement, they must be followed. I would be satisfied if these people would take their positions within a month” said Bosic. Asked how much of it is true, that Mirko Sarovic and Dragan Mektic will enter the Council of Ministers, and whether the SDS would give away the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to someone from the PDP, he said that at this point the SDS does not know who will get which ministries nor they have discussed specific names. “Mirko Sarovic has practically been one option ever since he was removed from office and on one way he got the recognition for that year of efforts to move the things from a standstill, but I have to say that neither the party got certain positions nor have we discussed within the SDS how to distribute them, it is a job that still waits to be done. All the candidates are in run, I heard a lot of stories, a lot of ambitions and different views, but it’s a process,” said Bosic. He is convinced that on Monday Ognjen Tadic will be appointed at the Collegium of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H. Responding to a question whether he thinks that the leader of the HDZ B&H Dragan Covic will give up on his partner from the SNSD, President Milorad Dodik, he said that he doesn’t think he has given up, and that he does not know in what kind of relations they are, and that it doesn’t interest him, but that he knows that Dragan Covic has decided to participate in the parliamentary majority and to support the Council of Ministers. “I am convinced that there will be no problems, and that we shall see at the session of the House of Peoples, at the voting for the member of the Collegium. If that session was held today, the HDZ would have voted for Ognjen Tadic,” said Bosic.

Wishes outstrip available ministries (Nezavisne novine)

The announced intensive multi-party talks on forming of new composition of the government in the Federation B&H Entity (FB&H) and the B&H-level executive Council of Ministers have begun, but the only result is that the parties have presented the lists of the positions they would like to have in the executive branch. Based on these preferences, it is obvious that the FB&H government is three positions short, because the SDA, HDZ B&H and DF have expressed interest in a total of 19 ministries, although there are only 16! It’s a similar situation when it comes to the division of departments in the Council of Ministers, which, as things stand right now, is two deputy minister positions short. Alliance for Change wants four deputy positions; the same requests are presented by the DF and HDZ-B&H, although the Council of Ministers has only 10 deputy minister positions. “The bilateral talks between the leaders are ongoing. Wish-lists have been exchanged. Who will get what, should be agreed on a joint meeting of all parties, perhaps as early as this weekend or on Monday,” said the interlocutor of Nezavisne while commenting on Tuesday’s meeting of the SDA Deputy President Bakir Izetbegovic first with the HDZ leader Dragan Covic, and then with the leader of the SDS Mladen Bosic. The DF does not take too kindly this way of assembling of composition of the executive branch of the FB&H and the B&H. “We will not participate in these bilateral talks where the two are making a deal which is potentially harmful to the third. Either we all sit down at the table together, or we wait awhile until these unproductive meetings that are being organized between the two come to an end,” said Emir Suljagic, a member of the DF Presidency, pointing out that the leader of this party Zeljko Komsic has not yet received an invitation for a meeting with anyone. Suljagic has confirmed that the DF submitted their requests to the SDA. In this list are the Ministry of Transport in the Council of Ministers and four deputy positions, the ministry of industry, tourism, health, refugees and the Ministry of Interior in the Government of the FB&H. When asked why did the DF increased their demands for an additional ministry, Suljagic answered by saying that the DF has no weaker electoral results than the HDZ-B&H, which is demanding six ministries in the FB&H, five of the posts reserved for Bosnian Croats and one out of three Bosnian Serb posts. The HDZ-B&H answered by saying that their only coalition partner is the SDA and that any possible doubts about the division of ministries the DF needs to solve directly with the SDA. “We are only interested in what the SDA and the Alliance for Change are looking for. Positions should belong to legitimate representatives of the people. That is why our minimum is six ministries in the FB&H, three ministries in the Council of Ministers and four deputy minister positions,” said Nikola Lovrinovic, Deputy Chairman of the HDZ-B&H. He says that the HDZ-B&H in the FB&H Government is most interested in the departments of industry, finance, agriculture and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. At the Council of Ministers their priorities are the finance, foreign affairs, foreign trade and civil affairs. “Everybody is calculating. At the same time, regarding the Government we have an issue with unconstitutional ministries in the FB&H and those are the Ministries of Education and Culture. About the manner of solving this issue, we have to negotiate with our partners,” said the Lovrinovic adding that negotiations are still ongoing but only at the level of party leaders. The legal deadline for confirmation of the appointments of all ministers in the Council of Ministers began to run from Wednesday, when the appointment of Denis Zvizdic as a Chair of the Council was confirmed. The law regarding the Council of Ministers provides that the final confirmation of the entire Council of Ministers convocation has to be done within 30 days, and the latest until 11 March. Lovrinovic believes that this deadline can be met, if that the election of members of the Collegium of the House of Peoples is finalized at Monday. Most of the other parties at the B&H level have much more optimism. Asim Sarajlic, the SDA Vice-President, claims that the Council of Ministers and the FB&H Government will be completed by the end of this month. “I do not expect any problems in the talks on the division of ministries. I expect that the Council of Ministers will be completed before the legal deadline,” said Ognjen Tadic, the Vice-President of the SDS. Unofficial information suggests that it will be much easier to reach an agreement on the division of the nine ministries in the Council of Ministers than in the FB&H ministries. “In regard to the Council of Ministers it is known that the Foreign Trade will belong to the SDS, which is the position for Mirko Sarovic, to the PDP that is obviously the External Affairs. The HDZ B&H will probably going to have the finance and Damir Ljubic will remain the Minister for Human Rights and Refugees. The SDA will probably get the civil affairs and justice, Komsic’s DF – the Ministry of Transport. There are no developments in regard to the FB&H Government, “said the interlocutor, well versed in current inter-party negotiations. In addition to the fact that between the DF and the HDZ the issue of who will get Serb position in the Government of FB&H is not resolved, reaching an agreement is made even more difficult because all the parties want the same ministry – industries, energy and mining.

Jonathan Moore in Banja Luka: Freedom of speech must be protected (Oslobodjenje)

Jonathan Moore, chief of the OSCE mission in B&H, said in Banja Luka that freedom of speech must be protected. In a speech to reporters after meeting with leading government officials in the Republika Srpska (RS), Moore stated that he visited Vrbanjci and spoke with families of Bosniak students who for the second school year are boycotting classes due to the education ministry’s refusal to introduce national group subjects to the curriculum. “You know that these problems exist in both the RS and the Federation. I will speak tomorrow with Education Minister Dane Malesevic about the problems in Vrbanjci and Konjevic Polje. We are neither judge nor prosecutor, but we stress that children must go to school, and that’s why we want to find a concrete solution. It seems we haven’t come to the end of the story yet,” added Moore. He recalled that in certain areas like Srebrenica, “people without the intervention of the international community have resolved the issue of education of students from various ethnic groups”. He noted that today he spoke about this problem with Milorad Dodik, president of RS, and Zeljka Cvijanovic, prime minister of RS. “I didn’t get concrete answers from them, but I didn’t expect them, either,” said the OSCE chief of mission. He turned to the fact that the RS National Assembly adopted a law on public order and peace, which brings social networks into the public domain, and recalled that the OSCE mission had already expressed concern over the adoption of the law, which limits freedom of speech and thought. “Freedom of speech must be protected, and now the question of implementation of the law is open,” said Moore. He told reporters that he spoke with the RS officials on the problem of terrorism, adding that as far as B&H is concerned, it is very important that there is good cooperation among security agencies and institutions that deal with these issues. “Threats of extremism exist everywhere in the world, and extremists are not only Muslim,” underlined Moore. The OSCE chief of mission considered that it is “good that the RS National Assembly accepted the statement by the B&H Presidency on the principles of B&H’s accession to the European Union”. “This is an excellent step forward. It is especially important that the statement received support not just from political parties, but from institutions as well,” concluded Moore.

Zaev possesses material of wiretapping of over 20,000 people (News 24)

Announcements of Zaev, and his claims that he possesses material of wiretapping of over 20,000 people brought fear among people. The bombastic announcements and threats, according to experts and analyze media are fear and terror among the Macedonian population. Zoran Zaev does not stop with such behavior. On the contrary, continues with materials, which he has and uses for blackmail. In the interview for News 24, Zoran Zaev noted that half of the materials that he possesses he will give to the people whose names are in folders, and that the others will be destroyed. “Call this material will be given to people to whom we will disclose material. We will not publish it and we will give them. Parts with criminal activities will be published. In addition, what eventually will remain, we will destroy it before the general public”, said Zaev. Those people who will receive materials that the SDSM leader has for them, will not even know who owns them and what are able to do with them. It is not clear what Zaev wanted to achieve with this statement. But it is clear that this provision of the materials in the folder will mean threat that “he keeps in hand persons whose materials he possess”. Strumica mayor threatens with unprecedented ease. He says he has evidence and footage from judges and prosecutors, but certainly from 20,000 citizens of this country. Persons in the folder will receive materials for themselves to live in limbo who owns their conversations and the same would apply. Of course, before them will be fear and how and who can blackmail them for the content in folders. This would not be so if Zaev did not reach for another lie and more contradictions. Like several times before, Zaev in short period of time for one topic said different data. Last night he once said he has been working on materials himself, and few seconds later to say that if he disappears there are lots of people that will publish the material. “Only Zaev knows. What is communicated is known by the services too. Only Zaev knew details. Of course, in the case of, God forbid something happens to me, it is known who is acting and accessing to the materials”, said Zaev.

With this, the leader from Bihakjka only confirms that it is not true that he is the only one who has the materials. Those who said they would continue to publish certainly have all the materials. So, the question: “If Zaev destroys the material, which is the guarantee that all those who possess it, will destroy them too”?

And Soros mercenaries possess the “folders”?

Professor Biljana Vankovska opened, before the public serious doubt about it in whose hands have ended the “USB sticks” and “folders” with bombastically announced materials. According to her information, journalists and media financed by Soros have received materials. In line with all this, are only confirmed and louder information that number of people has already become the target of threats. It remains unclear how far Zaev is ready to go just to provide more comfortable chair? The threats to citizens, and fear brings in threatening, certainly one day “bump his head” but definitely will not bring him confidence.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Belgrade-Priština dialogue resumes (EurActiv, by Maja Poznatov, 12 February 2015)

After a ten month pause, Serbia and Kosovo resumed their dialogue on the normalisation of relations, in Brussels on 9 February, yielding the first result: the two sides initialised an agreement on the judiciary. This should solve the issue of the judiciary’s functioning in Serb-populated areas. EurActiv Serbia reports.

The talks, mediated for the first time by the new EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, were difficult and both sides claimed the agreement advanced their interests. Opposition parties in both Serbia and Kosovo, however, dispute this.

Although the initialing of the document, agreed to in principle in March 2014, is a step forward, everything indicates that the talks will take more time, both because of sides’ different priorities, and because of their respective internal problems and challenges.

Among other things, the resumption of the dialogue was delayed by ten months, because of last year’s parliamentary elections in Serbia and in Kosovo, and because of the long process of forming a new government in Priština. What also cast a shadow on the resumption of the talks was the recent ousting of the Serb member of the Kosovo government, the Minister for Return and Communities, Aleksandar Jablanović. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa opted for Jablanovic’s dismissal, because citizens and the opposition demanded it, after the minister referred to the Albanian demonstrators who attacked displaced Serbs trying to enter Đakovica on Christmas Eve as “savages”.

Belgrade has described the ousting of Jablanović as “a deeply wrong decision” and announced that further participation of the Serb Ticket in the Kosovo institutions will be discussed after the Serbian delegation returns from Brussels.

Mogherini: Closing of crucial chapter

After overnight talks between 9 and 10 February in Brussels, the Serbian and Kosovar delegations initialed the agreement on the judiciary which, as the Serbian officials said, was arranged in principle at the previous meeting, in March 2014. The agreement envisages an ethnic composition of judges and prosecutors that reflects the ethnic structure of population in certain areas. Mogherini said that the agreement is closing a crucial chapter in the implementation of the Brussels agreement, whereby the life of the population will be significantly improved. In her statement, she congratulated Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić and Mustafa for that success. According to the agreement, the president of the court in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica will be a Serb and a significant majority of the judges and prosecutors in northern Kosovo will also be Serbs. In the southern part of Mitrovica, 14 judges will be Albanians and nine Serbs. Serb judges and prosecutors will also work in departments in Zubin Potok and Leposavić. Officials in Belgrade pointed out that the arrangement will protect Serb interests, and Priština stated that the document secured a unified judicial system for the whole of Kosovo.

The integration of judicial authorities and their work within the legal framework of Kosovo is envisaged by the agreement on the main principles of normalization of relations, reached in Brussels in April 2013, with EU mediation. Mogherini also stated that she had “expressed support to the two prime ministers for further progress on the road to the EU”.

Different priorities

At the 9 February meeting, the two sides’ different priorities became obvious. The Kosovo delegation insisted on the topic of civil defense and of the bridge across the Ibar River, while the Serbian delegation wanted to discuss the formation of an association of Serb municipalities, and the issue of Serbian properties in Kosovo. “One of these issues must be on the agenda of the next round of talks,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said. Belgrade raised the issue of Serbian property in Kosovo after the authorities in Priština attempted to nationalize the Trepča Mining Combine in January, which they subsequently abandoned. Several thousand Kosovars protested in Priština at the end of January, because the Kosovo government had abandoned the plan. The authorities in Priština did not express any readiness to accept the issue of Serbian property, and Trepča as a topic. High Representative Mogherini also requested that the issue of Trepča not be complicated any further. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said on 10 February that the Kosovar side had requested “the abolishing of parallel structures of civil defense” in Serb municipalities and stated that the Kosovars should not discuss any other topic before that is accomplished. Mustafa also requested the opening of free passage on the bridge across the Ibar in Kosovska Mitrovica “so that the freedom of movement is secured”. The bridge connects the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, populated by a Serb majority, and the southern part, predominantly populated by Albanians. Barricades were removed from the bridge last year, and the Serbs built a “Peace Park” by putting in place flower bins, which Priština interpreted as barricades on Mitrovica’s main bridge.

Belgrade expects recognition of its efforts from the EU

The dialogue with Priština will be “the key parameter” for Serbia’s progress in European integration. The normalisation of relations with Kosovo will be monitored through Chapter 35 in Serbia’s membership negotiations with the EU, and this chapter will be among the first to be opened and will influence the course of the membership negotiations as a whole.

Belgrade is hoping for the opening of the first chapters in the negotiations, and expects the EU and the international community to recognise the efforts it invests in the process of normalising relations with Priština. Vučić said after the meeting in Brussels that success in the dialogue with Priština will “give new momentum to Serbia’s European path” and that its “approach will be not just welcomed, but characterised as very serious, responsible and, I would say, courageous.” He expressed conviction that the first chapters in the EU membership negotiations will be opened in the coming months. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić stated on 10 February that the EU institutions’ stand was that Serbia is seriously preparing for and working in the negotiation process and that it has good capacities, but added that “politically optimal conditions” had to be created for the opening of chapters. Dačić also said that work on this was under way and that he was optimistic, adding that the EU should show more appreciation for Serbia’s contribution in the dialogue with Priština in the past two years, in the context of the opening of the chapters.

Pristina asks EU to expel illegal Kosovo migrants (EUbusiness, 12 February 2015)

(VIENNA) – Kovoso’s Interior Minister Skender Hyseni on Thursday urged the European Union to expel thousands of Kosovan nationals, who have quit their homeland in search of a better life in EU countries. Speaking after talks with his Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner in Vienna,, Hyseni said: “We’ve always been told that the vast majority of the illegal migrants have no status rights and will be sent back. I hope that happens quickly.” The past few weeks has since an influx of impoverished Kosovo Albanians into the EU. The migrants, who require a visa to enter the passport-free Schengen area, generally first cross into northern Serbia and then pay smugglers hefty amounts to spirit them illegally across the border into EU member Hungary. In January, Hungary received 13,000 asylum requests, mostly from Kosovan immigrants. In the same month Austria received 1,029 such requests from Kosovans. Hyseni said the EU should act to dispel the “illusion” among migrants, nurtured by the smugglers, that they can obtain asylum in EU countries. Mikl-Leitner said Kosovo was a safe country and that the migrants had “no chance of obtaining asylum”. The minister said she hoped to speed up the asylum procedure so that unsuccessful candidates were expelled within 10 days. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Around 40 per cent of the mostly ethnic Albanian population of 1.8 million people lives in dire poverty.

German police sent to Serbia-Hungary border to stem Kosovo exodus (Reuters, 12 February 2015)

BERLIN – Germany said on Thursday it was sending 20 police officers to the border between Hungary and Serbia to help control a surge in the number of asylum seekers heading into the European Union and ultimately to Germany with its generous welfare benefits. The EU has seen a sharp rise in the number of Kosovo citizens smuggling themselves into the bloc especially since a relaxation of travel rules allowing them to reach EU borders via Serbia. Some 10,000 Kosovars filed for asylum in Hungary in just one month this year, many fleeing from poverty and unemployment. Immigration has shot up the political agenda in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, with many voters angry about the cost and fearful that migrants and refugees will take their jobs. “To ensure the long-term stability of Kosovo and the whole region and to guarantee … protection and acceptance among the population for those who are politically persecuted .. we have taken a range of measures,” said the ministry in a statement. One step is for 20 German police officers to go to the Hungarian-Serbian frontier immediately to support long-term border management, said the ministry. The EU’s border control agency Frontex would also be strengthened there and Germany will support additional measures to protect the bloc’s external borders. It said authorities would prioritise asylum applications of Kosovo citizens, deciding on them within two weeks and stepping up efforts to show Germany is not an easy place to get applications through. Germany rejected about 99 percent of asylum applications from Kosovars last year and in January the approval rate was even lower, at 0.3 percent, said the ministry. To gain asylum, applicants must show they would faced persecution if they returned to their home country. The number of refugees from Kosovo jumped by 86 percent in January alone to 3,630, said the ministry. The interior ministry has also signalled it is open to changing the law – possibly making it easier to deport asylum seekers from Kosovo by making it a country of safe origin – but it has said that this is not the priority for now.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Serbian PM Going to Zagreb For Inauguration (BIRN, by Sven Milekic, 12 February 2015)

In spite of frosty relations between the two countries, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday said he will be going to the inauguration of the new Croatian President – and he intends to take with him a message of peace and cooperation. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic confirmed on Thursday that he will attend the inauguration of the new Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. Grabar Kitarovic won the presidential elections in January, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, in the second round. At a press conference in Belgrade, Vucic said he would “carry to Zagreb a message of peace and cooperation. “We want to improve relations. We strive to improve relations in the region, which will benefit both our people and the Croatian people and I think this is good and important news,” he said. Vucic said he aimed to show the world that Serbia is “a normal and decent country” and that he sees regional stability as more important than personal and political vanity. The decision is newsworthy, given the poor relations between Croatia and Serbia and the assumption – until recently – that neither the President nor the Prime Minister would be joning other heads of state from the region at the ceremony in Zagreb. The Serbian daily Blic on Wednesday broke the story that Vucic would be attending the inauguration on Sunday. Vucic will use the trip to meet members of the Serbian community in Croatia, including the Croatian Serb leader, Milorad Pupovac, and new Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan of Zagreb, Porfirije Peric. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic earlier this week said that he would not attend the inauguration because it coincided with Serbian statehood day, also on Sunday. It will be the first time that a Serbian Prime Minister has ever attended the inauguration of a Croatian President. However, Serbia’s former president, Boris Tadic, attended the inauguration of the former Croatian president, Stjepan Mesic, in 2005. Tadic and Serbia’s then Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetkovic, did not attend Josipovic’s inauguration in 2010, protesting against the fact that the President of Kosovo, which Serbia does not recognise, had also been invited. The inauguration of Grabar Kitarovic will be take place on St Mark’s Square in the old heart of Zagreb.

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