LOCAL PRESS

Dacic sends 44 protest letters (Novosti)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has sent protest letters to 44 countries that support Kosovo’s request for the UNESCO Executive Board to debate the membership of the false state in this organization, Novosti learns. According to Novosti, Dacic explained in the letter the legal, political, spiritual and cultural reasons over which it is unacceptable for Belgrade for Kosovo to become a member of this organization. The UNESCO Executive Board will convene between 7 and 22 October, while the Kosovo request, whose official proposer is Albania, has been placed on the draft agenda. Fifty-eight members of the Executive Board will vote on the first day of the session, so if this item is included on the agenda, then the voting would follow on 20 October. Albanian’s proposal has been supported by another 43 members of UNESCO, but it is interesting that not all countries in the Executive Board that recognize Kosovo have supported this initiative. Twelve of them haven’t done so, including Italy, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Macedonia, Japan…This certainly doesn’t mean that these countries will not accept this item on 7 October when the agenda will be decided, but just as well, if there is voting on membership, some of these countries could abstain or vote against. Still, the fact that of the 58 member states of the Executive Board 32 have recognized Kosovo, provides little basis for Belgrade to hope that Pristina will not provide the necessary simple majority. If it provides it, the battle at the UNESCO General Conference will be less predictable, where 195 member states have the right to vote and which is held from 3 to 18 November. The final decision on membership will be made there, and they will need the support of two-thirds of those who vote, not counting abstentions. The Serbian Ambassador with UNESCO Darko Tanaskovic is not surprised with Tirana’s move to submit the request on behalf of Kosovo: “It was expected, considering that Kosovo’s request forwarded to the UN organization didn’t arrive through usual procedure through the director general. So it couldn’t have been placed on the agenda, because Kosovo is not an UN member, but an entity that doesn’t have state-legal status and capacity.”

Djuric: ZSO to be established by spring of 2016 (Tanjug)

The establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) is advancing according to plan and the spring of 2016 is the final date when it is expected to be constituted, the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said in Strpce. The ZSO is a community which should help people live a better life, said Djuric, noting that the Serbs and Albanians have a future together and are likely to be successful only by means of mutual collaboration. He estimated the intimidation of Albanians with the ZSO as irresponsible behavior because, as he puts it, such messages just contribute to these peoples’ drifting apart from each other. Djuric said that one of the main reasons for the establishment of the ZSO is a strong economy. “This is, actually, why we are gathering and not to cause anyone any harm or problems,” he stressed. The Minister also noted that other Serb enclaves located in municipalities where Serbs are not a majority will institutionally be linked in such a way that they will freely be able to use the means provided by the ZSO.

Serbia continues to repay Kosovo’s debts (Novosti)

Serbia continues to repay the external public debt of Kosovo and Metohija. According to the data of the National Bank of Serbia, there is another 352.05 million Euros of principal debt that needs to be paid by the end of 2041. When the interest rate is included, this amount might easily reach one billion Euros. “In the period between 2002 and 31 August 2015, the Republic of Serbia repaid part of the external public debt that refers to beneficiaries from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, based on the principal debt and interest rate, in the total amount of around 580.13 million Euros. Of that amount 171.06 million Euros refers to the principal debt and 409.07 million Euros to the paid interest rate,” Novosti was told at the National Bank of Serbia. Part of the external public debt that the Republic of Serbia is servicing regularly within maturity, refers to the debt of Kosovo and Metohija for liabilities arising from the contract between the 1970s and 1990s towards the World Bank, the Paris and London Creditors’ Club, the European Investment Bank – now for the liabilities towards the EU and the Kuwaiti government. The liabilities towards the European Railway Association (Eurofim) were paid in 2007 and towards the Council of Europe Bank for Development in 2011. The liabilities of the Republic of Serbia towards the Libyan government and former Czechoslovakia (clearing debt) have not been regulated for the time being,” the National Bank of Serbia states. According to available data of the National Bank of Serbia, with the balance on 31 August 2015, part of the external public debt of the Republic of Serbia that refers to liabilities of debtors and beneficiaries from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and which will fall due in the period between September 2015 and 2041, based on the principal debt, is around 352.05 million Euros. The biggest part of the remaining public debt of Kosovo and Metohija refers to the Paris Creditors’ Club – more than 200 million Euros, followed by the London Creditors’ Club – more than 100 million Euros. Serbia is not repaying on behalf of Kosovo and Metohija only part of the debt towards the World Bank, which it stopped in 2009. Let us recall, Kosovo was admitted to the World Bank after it declared independence in 2008. Serbia was simply informed about the termination of that part of debt repayment with a letter from the headquarters in Washington DC.

Arsic: Community of Albanian municipalities is election marketing (Politika)

The atmosphere in Bujanovac was usual the first working day following the decision of part of the Albanian deputies in Presevo and Bujanovac on forming the community of Albanian municipalities in southern Serbia. The initiator of the “project of the community of Albanian municipalities” Jonuz Musliu, the current President of the Bujanovac municipality and the Head of the National Council of Albanians was not at his workplace in the municipality. They say he is absent. Stojanca Arsic, deputy President of the Bujanovac municipality, who, together with 11 Serbian deputies, is in coalition with Albanian parties led by Nagip Arifi and Jonuz Musliu (DPI, PDP) tells Politika that the law allows the formation of association of municipalities, but not on religious and national basis and with clearly defined jurisdictions, primarily in the direction of strengthening economic development. “That is why all that was voted last Saturday in Presevo is contrary to that. First of all, in order to form the association of municipalities, the decision should be passed by deputies at sessions of the municipal assemblies of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, which didn’t happen,” explains Arsic and goes on: “Tensions are raised unnecessarily. Both the initiators and participants of passing such a decision know there is no similarity with the Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo, in order for them to respond this way. Nagip Arifi also knows this; I have no doubt in this. Obviously, all this is election marketing of those would like to return trust of their voters. I deeply believe that they are aware that this association will not work.” Arsic points out that Musliu should know that the National Council that he heads has much greater jurisdictions from those he would receive with the formation of the association. “All this was unnecessary, politically instructed and doesn’t head in the direction of building greater trust. We will continue cooperation in the local assembly. We expect this also from our coalition partners. Everything in the interest of creating better living conditions for all citizens, not only for those who voted for us,” concludes Arsic.

REGIONAL PRESS

SDA and HDZ invited SBB for a Discussion about joining the Government (klix.ba)

The representatives of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) B&H and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) discussed the functioning of the executive and judicial authority on all levels, but it was not agreed on who could specifically be the partner at the Federation level in order to reach a stable parliamentary majority. However, the President of HDZ B&H Dragan Covic and the President of SDA Bakir Izetbegovic mentioned that one of the options is also the Alliance for Better Future (SBB), and said that they are open for negotiations. “The political agenda of SBB and SDA is very close, and some rivalries which turned to animosity are not unsolvable things. We are all in favor of the option to work for the country and general interest, and strength must be found to overcome that”, Izetbegovic told a press conference held after the meeting. Covic added that SBB has the capacity to be a partner with whom B&H would move in a better direction, and expressed confidence that the discussion will be held soon. “I am convinced that the discussion will take place soon and that in the coming two months we will stabilize the parliamentary majority in the FB&H”, said Covic adding that, until that happens, he will endeavor to secure the least support in the Parliament of the FB&H for certain things that the Federation Government does. Izetbegovic noted that SDA is ready to respond to the process where they would be nearing the attitudes and creating a stable coalition with SBB.

Will the fines improve the work efficiency in the Parliament B&H? (Faktor)

Provisions of this code will define the way of dressing. It will be forbidden for delegates to insult each other during the sessions. Also, the prohibition of reading newspaper, using computers and phones, and talk among delegates, will be introduced if such behavior interrupts the session. These are just a few provisions that regulate the rules of conduct of parliamentarians, as well as on other events they are attending in the name of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). What is the most important news in this code proposal are penalty measures as well as two instances while making decisions. Namely, the text provided the imposition of sanction for non-compliance with the code and so written warnings for smaller offenses, and fines or the publication of the offense and the offender in media for more serious offenses. Provided fines can be 10% of the total monthly income (salary +flat rate) for members of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H who have a status of the professional delegate, i.e. 70% of the flat rate for parliamentarians who don’t have a professional status in the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H. “Two instances in making decisions mean that the Commission for human rights will decide about the fine, and collegiums of both parliamentary homes will decide on appeals to brought decisions. Written warnings will be imposed to delegates whose applications show to be ill-founded, Then, they i is not acceptable to come to the session of the Parliament in jeans. According to his words, the novelty will be the involvement of the non-governmental sector and the public. Code will define applications for an inappropriate behavior to be submitted by members of non-governmental organizations, as well as media, if they notice that some delegates are violating the provisions of the Code“, said the chairman of the Commission for human rights, Borislav Bojic. That practically means that f some of journalists or representatives of non-governmental sector, who are attending the session, notice some delegate while reading newspapers, watching inappropriate content on the computer, or even sleeping, he will be able to report him/her to the Commission for human rights and to expect the negligent member of the Parliament to be punished. “For now, this code was met with the approval among members of the Parliament. It is good that there is a document that regulates the behavior, However, all of us have to be aware that we have to respect each other and that elected officials have to behave appropriately“, said the chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, Borjana Kristo.

Katica Janeva jointly nominated to be the new special prosecutor (Republika)

Katica Janeva, public prosecutor from Gevgelija, is the proposed candidate for the newly created post of special prosecutor. Her nomination comes after an evening meeting between the four largest parties in Macedonia. The appointment of a special prosecutor is part of the political agreement brokered by European Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Antonio Milososki, deputy Parliament Speaker who attended the talks as part of the delegation of the VMRO-­DPMNE party, tweeted on Monday evening that an agreement between the parties has been reached.

The parties were nearing the self-imposed deadline to appoint the prosecutor by 15 September. Besides the candidate herself, the parties were also discussing the type of legislation needed to appoint a special prosecutor, with different solutions floated in the press by VMRO­-DPMNE and the opposition SDSM party. At issue was also the size of the new office, and, of course, its mandate. The agreement brokered by Hahn provides that the special prosecutor will investigate allegations stemming from a cache of illegally wiretapped conversations which SDSM has been sharing with the public during the first half of the year. The Public Prosecutor’s office has already initiated cases against a former spy chief and the SDSM leader Zoran Zaev over the source of the wiretapping, and has also opened a number of cases in which it is investigating whether the allegations SDSM is making are valid. These latter cases are now expected to be handled by the special prosecutor. The political agreement brokered by European Commissioner Hahn also provided that SDSM returns to Parliament, after a boycott lasting 15 months. Now that the deadline for the appointment of a special prosecutor has been met, Hahn is expected to visit the country in a few days, in order to discuss further implementation of the agreement, but also resume the so-called HLAD dialogue, which helps prepare Macedonia for EU membership.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo set to gain entry into European soccer competitions (Associated Press, 15 September 2015)

ST. JULIAN’S, Malta – Kosovo can move closer to joining UEFA this week, with a place in 2018 World Cup qualifying possibly in play. Membership of Europe’s football governing body will allow the former Serbian enclave’s national team and clubs to start playing in continental competitions. That is the first step required before gaining FIFA membership, part of Kosovo’s wider push for international recognition since declaring independence from Serbia in 2008.

UEFA’s executive committee can rule the Balkan republic eligible to apply when it opens a two-day session on Thursday in Malta. Full membership can only be granted by UEFA’s annual congress, which meets in March in Budapest, Hungary. “We are expecting in March to be full members of UEFA and (then) FIFA and to catch the qualification,” Kosovo Football Federation Secretary General Eroll Salihu told The Associated Press in the Maltese coastal town of St. Julian’s on Tuesday. With fast-track support from FIFA, Kosovo could yet kick off World Cup qualifying next September. FIFA’s 209 members could allow Kosovo to join at meetings in Mexico City next May, allowing time to place Kosovo in one of the two European qualifying groups which have only five teams instead of six. “Because there are two groups with five, we hope to be like all others in this qualification,” Salihu said. FIFA said it “cannot make comments about potential scenarios.” UEFA is now supporting Kosovo’s case after resisting previous efforts by FIFA to let its teams play opponents from other countries. “Based on our commitment and the will UEFA is showing to resolve Kosovo’s problem, we believe that in Malta the UEFA executive committee will propose to the congress a solution for us,” Fadil Vokrri, the Kosovo Football Federation president, said. In May 2012, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced that Kosovo clubs and national teams should be cleared to play friendly matches. That was soon blocked by UEFA President Michel Platini, who sided with Serbian officials and cited a “purely political” decision. Russia, a traditional Serbian ally, and Spain, which opposes independence movements in its own regions, have also opposed Kosovo’s football diplomacy. A breakthrough came in January 2014 when FIFA ruled that Kosovo teams could play international matches, except against teams from other parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo Faces Major Obstacles to Joining UNESCO (BIRN, by Ivana Nikolic and Petrit Collaku, 14 September 2015)

After UNESCO decided to look at Kosovo’s membership application – a move that infuriated Serbian officials – experts said that obstacles remain on Pristina’s path to joining the UN’s cultural body

Kosovo’s second bid to join UNESCO, the result of an official request last week from Albania for the former Serbian province’s admission to UNESCO, is expected to be strongly contested by Belgrade. Tirana filed a request on Friday for the UNESCO Executive Council to put Kosovo on the agenda of its October session. The request was backed by 44 other UNESCO member states out of a total of 195. Kosovo’s deputy foreign minister Petrit Selimi told media on Friday that UNESCO’s board will review Kosovo’s application for membership on October 3, while its general assembly is expected to vote on the issue in the first week of November. But Serbian labour minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Saturday that Albania’s move “doesn’t lead to good neighbourly relations”, adding that Belgrade will do all it can to stop Kosovo’s UNESCO membership bid. “I’m sorry that Albania did what it did… That doesn’t restore trust in the region and shows there are countries that don’t care or only care a little about what Serbia and Serbs feel,” Vulin said. Belgrade opposes any recognition of Kosovo’s independence and argues that Pristina has failed to protect Serbian cultural and religious heritage since the war ended in 1999. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic admitted that the battle against Kosovo’s admission to UNESCO will be tough. “We are ready for that fight. It is reasonable that we oppose such a decision being made,” Dacic said on Friday. Albania’s request comes several months after Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci announced that Kosovo had applied to join UNESCO. At the time, Dacic send a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying that Kosovo’s request was unacceptable under international law. Kosovo’s membership bid was then rejected. But Behlul Beqaj, a Kosovo political analyst, argued there was now a real chances for Kosovo to join the UN body, although he also said he expects Serbia’s government to try to block it. “I assume they will complain about the way the membership bid was put forward, as it didn’t go through the United Nations but through the signatures of UNESCO member states,” Beqaj told BIRN. Dusan Janjic from the Forum for Ethnic Relations, a Belgrade-based think tank, predicted that the biggest obstacle for Kosovo would be getting enough votes in its favour. “Getting a majority [of the UNESCO member states] to vote for Kosovo’s membership would be hard because Kosovo doesn’t have full diplomatic relations with many of them,” Janjic told BIRN. But he said he was pessimistic about Belgrade’s chances of blocking Pristina. “Serbia is trying to lobby and to explain that joining UNESCO is one step further towards the international recognition of Kosovo. But I don’t believe they [Serbia] will be successful. Kosovo will enter UNESCO like it entered the International Olympic Committee [in 2014],” he said. Many significant Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches lie in Kosovo, and Belgrade officials have accused Pristina of not protecting them properly or even colluding in their destruction. During ethnically-charged unrest across Kosovo in March 2004, 19 people were killed and more than 800 buildings were destroyed or damaged (including 29 churches or monasteries), according to an OSCE report. International courts in Pristina have since convicted several people of destroying Serbian Orthodox churches, handing down jail sentences ranging from 21 months to 16 years. But Milan Antonijevic from the Belgrade-based NGO Lawyers Committee for Human Rights said that the issue of Kosovo joining UNESCO was purely political. “This is not about taking care of cultural heritage. This story is about politics and the questions of [Kosovo’s] statehood, as joining UNESCO would be a confirmation of statehood,” Antonijevic told BIRN. He said he expects “high resistance” to Kosovo’s bid from countries that have not recognised Kosovo’s independence or have regularly supported Serbia, like Russia. In order to become a UNESCO member, Kosovo first needs the support of its executive council. The council will then decide if UNESCO’s general conference will vote on Kosovo’s request during its session in November. Kosovo needs two-thirds of the vote to become a UNESCO member. “Now the battle for votes will intensify, with both parties trying to gain the support of as many member states as possible,” said Gezim Krasniqi, a fellow in Albanian studies at University College London. Krasniqi said Kosovo was well placed to get through the executive council stage but the general assembly would be a greater challenge. But he said that because of Pristina’s support from major powers like the US and various European states, “Kosovo stand a very good chance to join UNESCO in November”. Serbia has no right to veto Pristina’s UNESCO membership bid, and Kosovo is able to join even though it is not a UN member state.

Hungary seals border as Germany urges quotas (Bloomberg, 15 September 2015)

Schengen zone in lockdown as refugees are shut out

Budapest: Hungary sealed off the border with Serbia and began enforcing a law allowing authorities to imprison or deport refugees who cross the frontier illegally as Germany increased pressure on the European Union’s eastern members to share the burden of sheltering thousands of refugees fleeing war zones. EU interior ministers late Monday only agreed to the broad outlines of proposals to relocate 120,000 refugees as a cluster of eastern European nations continued to balk at a proposed quota system. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the 28-member bloc should consider cutting aid to those refusing to participate in the quotas. “The negotiating situation is precisely such that nothing happens to those countries which refuse,” de Maiziere said on ZDF public television on Tuesday. “That’s why we need to talk about leverage. These are often countries that get a lot of structural funds from the European Union.” As the EU debate continued, Hungary on Tuesday closed the region’s southeastern frontier, blocking the main route for refugees who have come in the hundreds of thousands in recent months, many hoping to go to Germany from countries such as Syria. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has led the crackdown against refugees, building a razor-wire fence on the border with Serbia and urging other European leaders to help fortify the bloc’s external frontiers. Germany and other countries have imposed border checks within the Schengen visa-free area, threatening the concept of a borderless EU that allows the free movement of people and goods. Underscoring the escalating nature of the crisis, German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday that as many as 1 million refugees may arrive by the end of the year in his country. “Germany can’t be there as the paymaster in Europe and everybody is around when they need money, but no one participates when responsibility must be taken,” Gabriel said during a televised press conference on Tuesday. “What we are experiencing now threatens Europe far more than the Greek crisis.” The German government is considering asking ministries to make ¤500 million (Dh2.2 billion) in across-the-board spending cuts in next year’s budget to help cover the extra costs of refugees, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the proposal is not public. The country announced last week that it would shift ¤6 billion to the 2016 budget from this year’s surplus to handle the crisis. Following Monday’s EU meeting, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, who chaired the gathering, held out the prospect of forcing through a decision by a super majority when the ministers next get together. Alternatively a summit of EU leaders may be called. Under the proposal, Germany, France and Spain would take the biggest numbers of refugees, with scattered eastern opposition leaving the bloc short of the target of 120,000. Battling whether the quotas are voluntary or mandatory, the ministers pledged to try and find agreement at their meeting in October. There is no “legal basis” in the EU’s seven-year budget to cut national funding and it “is not something we’re currently exploring”, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday regarding the suggestion from de Maziere. In Hungary, the cabinet on Tuesday declared a “state of crisis” in two border countries after police intercepted a record 9,380 people illegally crossing over a 24-hour period. After new laws took effect at midnight that made it a crime to cross the border illegally, police guarded the fence along the 175-kilometre-long border with Serbia, which has come to symbolise Orban’s hard-line response. “It’s not that we are hermetically sealing the border,” Orban told TV2. “We are just enforcing laws which already forbade entering the country outside designated border crossings.” Germany’s move to reinstate control along the border with Austria highlights the risk of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy while some other EU leaders stand still. Merkel has also come under fire from political allies at home as the country struggles to cope with the influx. Merkel is holding an emergency session with the prime ministers of all 16 German states later on Tuesday to discuss the crisis following a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann. The Austrian border is the main entry point for refugees flooding into Germany, with many of these first entering the EU through Hungary. Austria will start checks along its border with Hungary on Tuesday, said Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, spokesman for the interior ministry. Almost 20,000 refugees arrived in Austria’s eastern province of Burgenland on Monday, more than on any other day this year, local police spokesman Helmut Marban said. In Hungary on Tuesday, a police helicopter circled overhead on the eastern frontier and soldiers with machine guns joined the patrols, even before the Hungarian cabinet had agreed to allow the stationing of more troops at the border. Authorities have set up a transit point in no-man’s land between the Hungarian and Serbian border, where several hundred refugees waited on Tuesday. While the government has said its aim is to usher refugees to official crossings, they have little hope of gaining entry. That’s because Hungary’s parliament has granted Serbia “safe status”, meaning anyone coming from that country who isn’t registered will be automatically sent back, according to government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs. Serbia responded that it won’t accept the return of refugees that have already crossed into Hungary.

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.