LOCAL PRESS

 

Vucic: Talks on Kosovo elections (RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated that he will start today talks with the Kosovo Serb representatives on their participation in the Kosovo parliamentary elections on 8 June. Vucic told journalists in Belgrade that he doesn’t think that the decisions made by the Kosovo Central Election Commission (CIK) are wise and that he also doesn’t think that it is wise for the Serbs not to take part in these elections. “In any case, we will not let the heads of the Serb-majority municipalities decide on their own on this without agreement with Belgrade,” said Vucic. “We must behave responsibly and in line with the state interests so the state of Serbia will also pass this decision and it will not hide behind the heads of municipalities,” he said. He also said that the heads of municipalities will receive instructions and that he is convinced that they will know how to convey this to our people in Kosovo and Metohija.

 

Nikolic with Lidington on participation of Serbs in Kosovo elections (Politika/Radio Serbia)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic told British Minister for Europe David Lidington in talks in Belgrade that the Serbian leadership will take a joint stand to the question whether to call on Kosovo Serbs to vote in the Kosovo elections on 8 June as it is not certain under what conditions the elections will be held and what the Serbs will gain by that. Lidington said that Serbs should vote in order to obtain democratic legitimacy. Our responsibility towards the international community and, above all, Kosovo Serbs, is immense and we will never abandon them, Nikolic said, assessing Kosovo elections as a big challenge. Lidington confirmed that Serbia had made very fast progress towards the EU and had done a lot in the dialogue with Pristina. He stressed that Serbia had resolved to take an EU course and that it also strives to normalize relations with Pristina. He said he very much appreciated the aid extended by the United Kingdom to Serbian people struck by the recent severe floods. I have launched an initiative for an international donors’ conference and the French president agreed that France should organize it, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told me he would invite UN Member States to take part in that gathering and we would very much appreciate if Britain should join as well, said Nikolic. He added that the Serbian people and government had invested big efforts to save human lives and tangible assets, but that the overhaul of the fields, the reconstruction of the destroyed economy, infrastructure and facilities, international aid is required. Lidington said that the British public was shocked at the extent of the catastrophe that has struck Serbia, expressing admiration for the courage displayed by Serbs at those difficult moments. The UK helped in a practical way and the public will be informed of aid in vehicles, to be presented through the Red Cross, said Lidington. He said British and French officials would see how to join the campaign of helping Serbia. They agreed that Serbian-British friendship should be renewed and intensive bilateral cooperation to mutual interest established.

 

Serbs south of the Ibar will vote, but not those in north Kosovo and Metohija (Politika)

The Serbs south of the Ibar River will vote at the early parliamentary elections on 8 June, while their fellow-nationals in the north, over the conditions imposed by Pristina, will not vote, Politika unofficially learns. The representatives of the Serbian list in northern Kosovo and Metohija state that they can’t vote under the conditions where the census of 70,000 for the 11^th mandate is requested, where the ballots are with the symbols of the Kosovo state and where the procedure on election committees is violated. A well-informed source told Politika that the Serbian list that has 67 candidates, 19 from Gracanica, must “choose between two evils”, convinced that it will receive at least 8 out of the 10 guaranteed mandates for the Serb community at the elections. “Even though we don’t have time for the campaign, even though we accept to enter the Kosovo Assembly under impossible conditions, I expect that we will be able to do a great deal in the future assembly. The conditions are inappropriate, there is much fluctuation whether to vote or not, but we are forced to be at the polls, convinced that the Serb people will give us their votes,” Politika’s source states. The Serbs in the north will not “go to the polls under such Pristina’s conditions” and this was also confirmed to Politika by North Kosovska Mitrovica Mayor Goran Rakic and Stevan Vulovic, Zubin Potok Mayor. “We can’t call the people to vote on 8 June when Pristina is constantly and continuously blackmailing us, and I doubt that anything can change in the following days. The Kosovo Central Election Commission has done this deliberately, without respecting the Law on general elections, and we also can’t accept to have statehood symbols of the self-declared Kosovo state on the ballots,” said Goran Rakic.

 

Vulovic: No conditions for elections in Kosovo and Metohija (Beta)

Zubin Potok Mayor Stevan Vulovic has stated that his personal stand is that the Serbs should not take part in the Kosovo parliamentary elections on 8 June. “Pristina is trying to stultify the life of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija through all of its institutions and my stand is, which doesn’t mean this will be our final stand, that we will not take part in the elections under such conditions,” Vulovic told Beta. He added this “will not be possible especially if the ballots carry in any form some state in an attempt that they call Kosovo”. He said that “this time, just as for the local elections, everything will be changed in the course of the election process and that everything will be against the Serbs”.

 

Djuric: Government to do everything to return displaced Serbs to Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug)

“The Serbian government will do everything in coordination with the EU and other international partners to enable the return of the Serbs who were forced out of their homes in Kosovo, but also to ensure that those living in Kosovo enjoy the maximum economic, political and human rights,” the Head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has said.
He visited Gracanica, near Pristina, and met with local officials and residents and later with the Raska-Prizren Bishop Teodosije at the Gracanica monastery. It is impossible to achieve any national goals in Kosovo without involvement from the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has been one of the pillars of the Serbs’ existence and future survival in Kosovo, Djuric told reporters. “It is time to end the dispute concerning Kosovo and find a solution that will satisfy everyone’s needs as much as possible, including the Albanians. Kosovo is a bad place to live in for the Serbs today, but it is definitely not a good place to live in for the Albanians either. The same bad fate awaits both the Albanian and Serbian children unless clan divisions, criminal organizations and trafficking in narcotics, arms and humans is stopped,” Djuric said, stressing that Serbia was not to blame for that situation and the bad economic conditions, but the authorities in Pristina. Serbia wants to be a part of the solution and involved in progress, Djuric stated, calling on all the Albanians and Serbian citizens in Kosovo and other parts of Serbia to correct the mistakes of the past through dialogue and solve the problems they had inherited. “The Serbs and Albanians need each other, and a peaceful future of the Serbian and Albanian children must be a priority for all the participants of the dialogue,” he concluded.

 

Dacic: Serbia committed to admission to the EU (Beta)

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said in Vienna that 100 years after the start of the First World War one should work on a joint European future and that EU expansion was important both for countries striving for membership and for EU member-states. He told a press conference within a conference on the Western Balkans that the event was aimed at strengthening the EU prospects of the Western Balkans and finding ways for the EU to help Serbia and B&H after the severe floods. EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule emphasized that political dialogue was very important for the EU, mentioning the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue as a good example. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic stressed it was in the interest of Serbia that all countries in the region should prosper and approach EU standards. We have many interests in common, he said, calling on all the countries of the region for more direct cooperation. He said that Serbian national priority and primary strategic goal of its foreign policy was to join the EU.

 

Gasic with UN representatives on estimates of flood damages (Tanjug)
Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic met today with the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia Irena Vojackova Sollorano and the Head of the UN Office in Belgrade Peter Due, whom he informed about the first estimates of the scale of the damages on infrastructural and other premises in the power and agricultural sector. The statement by the Defense Ministry says that Gasic thanked the UN for assistance during the resolution of problems that resulted from the recent floods in Serbia and said that Serbia expects further coordination and cooperation with the UN. Gasic also conveyed to his interlocutors the concern of the Serbian government over the decision of the interim institutions in Pristina to form the Kosovo armed forces. “We see international presence as the guarantor of security in Kosovo and Metohija, so we are following with concern the current process of the reduction of international forces,” Gasic pointed out. Cooperation of the Defense Ministry with the UN and its specialized agencies and bodies is of great importance for continuing the reform process and Serbia’s progress towards full-fledged EU membership. Engagement of members of the Serbian Army in UN multinational operations in that sense is of great significance, assessed the interlocutors. Presently, 205 Serbian Army members are engaged in six UN multinational operations, and it is planned to increase the engagement in 2014. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet will visit Serbia in the following days, the Defense Ministry announced, assessing as successful past cooperation with the UN Development Program, especially in the domain of the CASM and support in implementing the national action plan for implementation of UNSCR 1325 – Women, Peace and Security in the Republic of Serbia (2010-2015).

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Bevanda: Problem of not passing the law has been ongoing for over a year (Srna)

The Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers Vjekoslav Bevanda said that the problem with the failure to pass amendments to the Criminal Code and the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering has been present for over a year, and that one of the causes is that the B&H Security Ministry did not want to take into account the objections of the Republika Ruska (RS). “The law was forwarded to the B&H Parliamentary Assembly by outvoting. Bosniak and Croat ministers voted so to avoid this situation, but there was simply no consent and it was harmonized at the last moment between the B&H Security Ministry and the B&H parliament caucuses coming from the RS,” said Bevanda.

 

Austrian government to donate 500,000 Euros to Serbia and B&H respectively (Oslobodjenje)

The Austrian government has decided to donate 500,000 Euros to Serbia and B&H respectively for the overhaul of the flood consequences, said Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at a trilateral meeting in Brussels with Serbian and B&H counterparts, Ivica Dacic and Zlatko Lagumdzija respectively. Dacic thanked for the donation on behalf of the Serbian government and citizens and on the help extended by Austria so far after the floods. The meeting was held within a Central European Initiative conference.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Vucic Tells Kosovo Serbs Not to Boycott Election (BIRN, by Ivana Nikolic, 3 June 2014)
After Serb leaders in northern Kosovo said they were quitting election-related activities in a dispute over ballots, Serbia's Prime Minister has said that Kosovo Serbs should vote in the election.
Ahead of general elections in Kosovo on Sunday, Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has advised Kosovo Serbs not to boycott the elections.
“I don’t think it is smart for them not to vote,” Vucic said in Belgrade on Tuesday, adding that he planned to talk to Serbian representatives in Kosovo to convey his views.
“We will not leave this decision to the mayors of local municipalities to vote or on not, without previous agreement with Belgrade,” he explained.
Vucic spoke after local leaders in Kosovo said they were abandoning the election campaign in a dispute over the composition of election committees and the presence of Kosovo state insignia on ballot papers.
They also claim that the Kosovo authorities have changed the rules to make it more difficult for minority parties to enter the Kosovo parliament.  
Earlier, the Serbian authorities appeared to support the decision of the Serbian leaders in northern Kosovo.
On Monday, the new head of the Serbian government's office for Kosovo and Methohija, Marko Djuric, on his first visit to Kosovo, said local Serbs should vote on the basis of decisions made by their local municipalities.
Some Serbian parties in Kosovo have made it clear they will boycott the vote on June 8, whatever the position of the Serbian government.
The nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, is one. The party's representative in Kosovo, Marko Jaksic, said participation in the election meant recognizing the independence of Kosovo and thus violating the Serbian constitution.
“The fact that Vucic is telling the Serbs to vote on Sunday is not surprising. This regime signed the Brussels Agreement in order to come into power,” Jaksic told BIRN, referring to the EU-led agreement on normalisation of relations signed in 2013.
“Serbian politicians in the Kosovo parliament will be nothing else but a mere décor,” he added.
Serbian PM demands OSCE apology over allegations of censorship (Reuters, by Aleksandar Vasovic, 2 June 2014)
BELGRADE, June 2 - Serbia's prime minister accused Europe's chief security and rights watchdog of lying on Monday after it alleged his government tried to smother online criticism of its handling of devastating floods last month.
Declaring himself "deeply worried" by the accusation, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic accused the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of waging the "dirtiest campaign" against him and Serbia.
Some 51 people died in Serbia and thousands more lost their homes in May when the heaviest rainfall recorded in more than a century caused rivers to burst their banks, submerging towns and washing away roads and bridges.
"From you, dear gentlemen from the OSCE, I expect a simple apology and nothing more," Vucic wrote to the Vienna-based organisation. "Whether or not I get it, I want to inform you, dear gentlemen, that I will fight the lies you have spread."
Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE freedom of media representative, said in a statement last week she was deeply concerned about what she described as a "worrying trend of online censorship in Serbia".
She cited the removal of online content perceived as critical of Belgrade's flood response and the detention of three people for allegedly spreading panic through online posts.
Serbia's human rights ombudsman also warned on Monday of an "emergency situation" in terms of freedom of expression.
"The sequence of events ... suggests that this is not a question of someone's poor understanding of the situation, but an organised effort aimed at stifling criticism," Sasa Janovic told Serbia's B92 television.
STRONG GRIP ON POWER
Vucic is a former ultranationalist who served as information minister in the late 1990s, when independent media were fined and shuttered under draconian legislation designed to silence dissent as strongman Slobodan Milosevic readied for war with NATO over Kosovo.
He changed tack to embrace Serbia's path to European Union membership in 2008 and returned to government in 2012.
Vucic's strong grip on power has unnerved some in Serbia who fear a return to authoritarianism, something the prime minister has dismissed. Much of that fear has been channeled through blog posts and online media.
Using powers under a state of emergency declared during the flooding, police took three people in for questioning on suspicion of "inciting panic" by their online posts, and summoned about a dozen more.
In a statement, Mijatovic on Monday said she spoke with Vucic earlier in the day and "received assurances that he personally and his government will tackle these issues."
"My message to the government remains: these actions need to be investigated and those behind them must be held accountable," she said. "It is the role and duty of the government to protect and nurture freedom of expression whether online or offline."
Mijatovic also said a website was blocked on Monday after reporting allegations that Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, a top-ranking official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), had plagiarised his doctoral thesis.
Big Promises, Few Details, in Kosovo Election Campaign (BIRN, by Arijeta Lajka, 2 June 2014)
As elections loom on June 8, the political parties in Kosovo are outbidding each other in terms of ambitious promises that look far from reach.
At a rally last week in the western town of Gjakova, where the jobless rate nears 60 per cent, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, leader of the ruling PDK, said the city would become so developed if it voted PDK on June that it would look like Germany.
Like most parties campaigning in the election, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is trying to gain votes by focusing on the economy and creating jobs.
And like most parties, isn’t clear how its ambitious pledges will be achieved.
With slogans like PDK’s “New Mission", the AAK’s “New Direction", the LDK’s “The Turn", and Vetevendosje’s "Are you tired?", their slogans aren’t the only aspect of their campaigns lacking creativity.
Most of their goals overlap as well.
According to the PDK’s campaign, the ruling party will create 200,000 jobs in Kosovo in only four years and double the amount of employees in small and local businesses, which Thaci is convinced will lead to a “boom economy”.
However, Thaci’s past pledges in the employment sector weren’t met.
In March, Thaci increased salaries for public sector workers. According to economists, if the government does not lower public spending, the money to pay for the hikes will have to come from taxes and fines. In fact, since the salaries went up, fines and taxes have risen sharply.
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, also maintains it can deliver 200,000 jobs, and increase the average salary to 1,000 euro, which is 750 euro more than today’s average salary.
The Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, is joining the trend, promising a mere 120,000 new jobs.
Such goals are simply not realistic, according to economist Musa Limani. “Kosovo’s economy, including the private sector, which is dominant, does not have the capability to create 200,000 jobs," Limani said.
"So far, about 6,000 to 10,000 individuals have been hired each year, so how they are going to make 50,000 new jobs in a year?” Limani asked.
“All of the parties are prioritizing the economy, but they don’t have a programme, strategy or vision,” he added.
Kosovo currently has an unemployment rate of 45 per cent according to the 2011 census, while only 10 per cent of the nation's youth is working.
Along with creating jobs, the AAK promises to deliver “Absolute equality in front of the law” and “Zero corruption immediately.” On a scale ranging from 0- very corrupt to 100 - clean, Kosovo received a score of 33 according to one study.
After visas were been lifted for most Balkan countries. Kosovo is now the only country in the Western Balkans whose nationals may not travel to Europe without visas.
While the Prishtina authorities have met the requirements for visa liberalization, talks on lifting visas are at a standstill.
The AAK, however, is promising visa liberalization within one year.
According to Tanja Fajon, former European Parliament rapporteur for visa liberalization, it is not clear when Kosovars will be allowed to travel freely to Europe owing to the high number of asylum seekers from Kosovo in the West. There were around 17,000 applications in 2013.
The PDK and LDK also plan to invest in a modernized railway, connecting towns and cities in Kosovo.
The LDK wants to build a railway linking Kosovo and Albania, and maintains that trade will rise via the new railway line.
However, reports show that Kosovo's economy has not benefited much from the costly 2-billion-dollar highway already connecting Albania and Kosovo.
Albert Krasniqi, a researcher at Kipred, said all the campaign pledges “fail to match the reality of the country and thus would be very hard to implement”.
Krasniqi added: “Until now we have heard only how they will spend the budget, but nobody talks about how that inflated budget will be obtained.”
Another political party, Nisma, recently formed by ex-guerilla fighter Fatmir Limaj, is holding back on the ambitious job promises and focusing on criticizing the government and its flaws.
Limaj claims that Thaci has run the government for four years without a proper programme.
The PDK plan to create 200,000 jobs is an “election fraud”, according to Nisma’s website.
“Through these elections, Hashim Thaci tries to manipulate the feelings of hundreds of thousands of poor Kosovars for whom the workplace has become a daily nightmare,” it says.
The party statement calls on all those who feel dissatisfied with the current government to build a new foundation for Kosovo. Only that will enhance development, it says.
Kosovo: time for a restart between Pristina and the north? (SwissInfo, by Matthias Bieri, 2 June 2014)
Kosovo still has rocky relations with its northern Serbian community. With Kosovo Parliamentary elections coming up, Matthias Bieri of the Center for Security Studies, the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, considers the challenges for all those involved.
It was hoped that the Brussels Agreement would lead to the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and stabilize the situation in Northern Kosovo in the process. Yet, while it’s true that ties between Pristina and Belgrade have improved, the same cannot be said about the Kosovar capital’s relations with its restive northern territory. Indeed, Pristina still lacks a dialogue with the Serbian minority in the north. Will a change of government help to rectify this situation?
Steps Forward…
The past year has certainly witnessed some promising developments. The majority of Serbian parallel institutions that once existed in Northern Kosovo have now been dissolved, most notably the police forces which have been integrated into the Kosovo Police. An integrated justice system is also in the offing.
 In late 2013, local elections were also held in Northern Kosovo for the first time. However, the north’s Serbian community continues to reject integration into Kosovo’s political structures and it still has no incentives, neither social nor economic, for institutional incorporation. In addition, it feels alienated by the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.
 Crucially, the most important aspect of the Brussels Agreement has yet to be tackled. The Community of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo is expected to oversee the social and economic development of Kosovo’s Serbian communities (four in the north, six in the rest of the country).
 However, the Serbs in the north do not have confidence in the Community. They simply do not know what its creation will bring and fear a step towards institutional integration. The remit of the Community remains the subject of intense debate. While Serbia envisages an institution that enjoys far-reaching powers and privileges, thereby enabling it to exert influence over the Serbian municipalities’ fate, Kosovo is intent on minimizing the Community’s ability to act autonomously.
 However, the soon-to-be-formed body may constitute an auspicious way for Pristina to establish communication with the north, while guaranteeing it a certain degree of self-government. Kosovo Parliamentary elections scheduled for this summer might result in a government that is prepared to better connect with the Community of Serbian Municipalities and, indeed, the northern part of the country. This will effectively require the unseating of the allies and supporters of incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, as well as the election of a cadre of politicians who do not have a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) background. There will also be a need to tacitly acknowledge that the country’s not-so-distant past still remains fresh in the minds of Kosovo’s Serbian minority.
Reservations
However, predicting the final outcome of these elections is undoubtedly a risky task. For instance, it is still not clear whether Thaçi will leave office or run for another term. Indeed, even if Thaçi does decide to step down there’s a distinct possibility that Kosovo’s electorate may still look to those politicians who are reluctant to revitalize ties with the north. Nor does the formation of a coalition government with a slim majority bode well for the future, especially if it feels a need to distinguish itself with a harder line on relations with Kosovo’s Serbs as well as Belgrade.
 And let’s not forget that the Serbian community is likely to remain hostile towards Pristina irrespective of the final outcome of these elections. Their general refusal of the Kosovar state will remain strong, at least for the foreseeable future. It will undoubtedly take time for the new government to gain their trust. Patience and a ‘win-win’ mentality will be necessary if the next Kosovar government wants to make genuine progress. The Community of Serbian Municipalities could in this context turn out to be the forum for initial contact.
Looking Ahead
In addition, the new administration should aim to tackle shared economic problems from day one. How Pristina goes about the setting up of a war crimes tribunal in the coming months will also be important. If ethnic Albanians are convicted for crimes during the war, an acknowledgment by the new government would raise its credibility among the country’s Serbs. However, this will not be an easy task given that many Kosovars remain suspicious of the tribunal since it might tarnish the country’s international reputation and its national pride.
 Ultimately, the replacement of the Thaçi government with a more progressive administration could provide Kosovo with a unique opportunity for rapprochement with the north. The Community of Serbian Municipalities may finally get a conversation with the Serbian communities in the north started. If this happens, a normalization of relations inside Kosovo could start soon.
Matthias Bieri is a Researcher in the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security team at the Center for Security Studies (CSS), Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). He is co-editor of the policy brief series CSS Analyses in Security Policy and author of Kosovo between Stagnation and Transformation.
Coal-Fired Plant in Kosovo Tests World Bank Clean-Air Pledge (Bloomberg, by Sandrine Rastello, 2 Jun2 2014)
The smokestacks at Kosovo’s oldest power station tower over decaying buildings and a tangle of rusty pipes, polluting the Balkan countryside and posing the first test of the World Bank’s pledge to avoid coal.
The half-century-old plant near the capital, Pristina, produces a third of the nation’s electricity by burning lignite, a type of coal that emits more greenhouse gases than any other fossil fuel and is blamed for hundreds of premature deaths a year in Kosovo. Chronic power outages hobble the country’s $7 billion economy, the poorest in Europe after Moldova.
Kosovo’s government is asking the World Bank to help finance a new plant that would provide a reliable power supply while still tapping the nation’s lignite reserves, the world’s fifth largest. The proposal is forcing the lender and its biggest shareholder, the U.S., to make an exception in their clean-energy commitments and concede that burning coal can be the fastest route out of poverty.
 “We’re going to avoid coal except in the most exceptional circumstances, and in this case, it is one of the exceptional circumstances,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a May 30 interview. “It’s a dilemma, not just as the World Bank -- it’s a dilemma all over the world.”
Boosting growth and attracting foreign investment while agreeing to close the old plant means the country of more than 1.8 million people needs new sources of electricity. The debate with environmentalists is whether that can be achieved without coal, an abundant resource that’s been a source of pride in the former province of Yugoslavia.
Shifting Mindset
“All these years, we have not been able to think about anything else,” said Visar Azemi, who coordinates Kosid, a coalition of non-profit organizations, media and research institutes that oppose a new plant, in an interview in Pristina. “To talk to people about shifting this mindset to renewables, to something else besides coal, was not an easy task to do.”
Containing less energy and more carbon, lignite is cheaper than hard coal and has seen a recent revival in Europe as policy makers allowed mines to be expanded to drive down power prices.
The Kosovo project -- a two-unit, 600-megawatt plant that would be fed coal from nearby state-owned mines -- is estimated by the government to cost less than 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion). It would be built with private funds and sit next to Kosovo’s second power plant, which dates back to the 1980s and needs upgrades.
Lining Up
U.S. and European companies are lining up to bid on the project. New York-based ContourGlobal LP and Sithe Global Power LLC, which is owned by funds managed by Blackstone (BX) Group LP, were pre-approved as bidders, along with Turkish company Park Holding AS, according to Economic Development Minister Fadil Ismajli. Public Power Corp SA, Greece’s largest electricity company, is partnering with Sithe Global, he said in an interview earlier this year.
To lure investors and their financiers spooked by political or credit risks, the World Bank would offer about $60 million in loan guarantees that would kick in if the government failed to meet obligations such as supplying coal or purchasing electricity. Such guarantees ensure the bank gets involved early on in disputes and helps avoid such crises.
Years without investment have curtailed the two plants’ capacity, making outages part of daily life in Kosovo and forcing the state-owned utility to import more expensive electricity. More than a third of the power available is lost during transmission and distribution or is never billed.
Winter Nights
On winter nights, the smell and haze from wood-burning stoves waft through the streets of Pristina, a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants where Ottoman-era monuments sit beside concrete-block tenements built during the Cold War.
The country has “obsolete technologies which are highly polluting and are not sufficient to meet even the basic demands for growth and development of the economy,” Ellen Goldstein, the World Bank’s country director for Southeast Europe, Europe and Central Asia, said in a phone interview.
The Washington-based bank looked at all options before concluding that the best way to meet current and future demand is to build a new, more efficient coal-fired plant and complement it with renewable sources, which the government has pledged to expand, Goldstein said. The bank also plans to fund efforts to insulate government buildings.
For Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is not recognized by Russia or China, coal also means security of supply, Ismajli said in an e-mail.
Cheap Supply
Russia’s annexation of Crimea earlier this year and the instability engulfing Ukraine “demonstrate the importance of developing indigenous resources,” he said. “Kosovo has an abundance of high-quality lignite that is cheap and easy to extract.”
Kosid and its international allies, which include the U.S.- based environmental group Sierra Club, say a new lignite-fired plant is avoidable.
“There are better, cheaper, smarter options, which also happen to be lower emitting,” said Bruce Buckheit, a former official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who worked as a consultant on Kosovo for the Sierra Club. Among the potential sources of energy is natural gas from Azerbaijan, he said.
Opponents of the plant also promote a renewable-only proposal crafted by Daniel Kammen, who heads the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, and spent a year advising the World Bank on the issues. His low-carbon scenario uses more optimistic assumptions for wind-, solar- and biomass-generated power than the bank.
Opposition Funding
Kosid, which has financial backing from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, has campaigned against the government plan, citing the bank’s own estimates that air pollution causes more than 800 premature deaths in Kosovo each year.
“The high cost of building a new coal plant will go into your energy bills,” Kosid says in an animated television advertisement released last month in Kosovo. “And the health-care treatment for thousands that will fall sick from the pollution, that’s also an economic cost of coal.”
The goal for the activists is ultimately to dissuade the bank from supporting the project. The bank has become a bigger advocate for clean energy development during two years under Kim, a physician and anthropologist by training.
“We just cannot tell them that they can’t have energy because we can’t invest in coal,” Kim said in the interview. “We’re going to at least make this coal-power plant the cleanest it could possibly be.”
Rare Cases
Last year, the lender said it would stop financing coal projects except in rare cases “where there are no feasible alternatives available to meet basic energy needs and other sources of financing are absent.”
Kosovo’s future with coal is “a test of the ambiguity they’ve left on the table,” said Scott Morris, a former deputy assistant secretary for development finance and debt at the U.S. Treasury Department. “It’s a dilemma for the bank in that there’s no doubt that any coal project has a climate impact.”
The lender last financed a coal-fired plant four years ago, in South Africa. While the project was approved, several countries, including the U.S., abstained from the board vote.
This time, the bank’s largest member-nation appears more supportive, with officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development recommending the project in a September report.
Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said during a May 8 congressional hearing that “for the poorest countries, we continue to have an exception for coal facilities.”
Board Decision
Treasury Department spokeswoman Holly Shulman said the U.S. won’t make a final decision until the project is brought to the bank’s board, which has yet to schedule a review.
The timing is less than ideal for President Barack Obama as he makes a case for acting on climate change. The EPA today proposed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions from the nation’s power plants by an average of 30 percent from 2005 levels, the boldest single step the U.S. has taken to fight global warming. The move drew immediate Republican opposition.
The U.S. and Kosovo have a close relationship that dates back to the war of 1998-99, when the U.S. pushed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to conduct air strikes to end an ethnic conflict between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians.
In Pristina, a statue of Bill Clinton welcomes visitors driving from the airport on a boulevard that bears the former U.S. president’s name. It intersects with a street named for George W. Bush, Clinton’s successor, who supported the country’s independence.
Government Mine
Kosovo’s government, which will retain ownership of the mine supplying the proposed plant, in April asked the companies to start the bidding, the economic ministry said in an e-mail.
The older of the two main plants may remain open through 2021 or 2022, until a new one is operating, said Ismajli, the economic development minister.
A few miles away, Ragip Grajcevci, 49, operates excavators in coal fields that are moving closer to his village, Hade.
Fearing the mine’s expansion will eventually displace his family, Grajcevci is seeking job guarantees for young people in his town, despite the toll he says coal has taken on his own health. Kosovo’s reliance on burning coal for electricity and its impact on air quality aren’t among his immediate concerns.
“Whether we want it or not, the government has decided,” he said at a cafe in the town of Obiliq, where the smokestacks and cooling towers of the coal-fired power stations crowd the skyline. “It’s a done deal.”

Serbian University Denies Interior Minister 'Plagiarism' (BIRN, by Milka Domanovic, 2 June 2014)
Belgrade’s private Megatrend University said it will sue the authors of an article that claimed that Serbia’s interior minister Nebojsa Stefanovic plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis.
Mica Jovanovic, the rector of Megatrend University, said on Monday that the thesis was genuine and that he would sue the three authors of the article minister’s published on the prominent website Pescanik.net.
“We will sue all three, and we will form a commission that will defend the university and Nebojsa Stefanovic,” Jovanovic said.
Three British-based academics wrote the article that was published on Sunday by Pescanik.net, which was entitled: “How to get a PhD? Easy! The case of Nebojsa Stefanovic.”
They alleged that the Serbian interior minister had plagiarized parts of his thesis on strategic management in local governance.
The three authors, Ugljesa Grusic, Branislav Radeljic and Slobodan Tomic, told Balkan Insight that they had read the whole thesis in detail several times and that they stood behind every claim in their article.
“We have found examples where parts of someone else’s work were taken over without citing sources and recognizing someone else’s authorship,” they said in a collective statement, adding that such actions represent a serious violation of academic rules.
But Jovanovic, who was also Stefanovic’s mentor, said that the thesis was authentic and the minister had brilliantly defended it.
“I have the impression and I am sure that my impression is right that they [the three authors] did not have the whole paper, that they used only sections, because the empirical work can not be plagiarised,” Jovanovic said.
One of the doctoral thesis committee members, Snezana Djordjevic, a professor from Belgrade University’s Faculty of Political Sciences, also denied that the thesis was plagiarized.
“It is a completely independent scientific paper and it fits the standards of the doctorate,” Djordjevic said, adding that the paper was very interesting and original.
Megatrend University is perceived as close to the ruling coalition.