Albanian Language Media:

• Thaci address international conference on religion in Tirana (media)
• Vetevendosje rejects NISMA and AKR (Gazeta Express)
• LDK MP: There is no problem with votes, new elections in 2023 (Indeksonline)
• “41% of enterprises believe Kosovo–Serbia deal would increase export” (media) 
• Major number of Kosovans still in Syria and Iraq, 40 of them ISIS fighters (media)
• RIDEA presents studies of the final phase of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (Klan)

Serbian Language Media:

• Serbian List reaction to a music video filmed at Novo Brdo: Desecration of the Serbian holy shrines with inappropriate behaviour (RTS)
• Kurti says it's known who killed Kosovo Serb leader (N1, KoSSev, Pobjeda)
• Igor Simic: Kurti is directly interfering in the work of judicial bodies (RTS)
• Djuric: Kurti’s intention is to militarize Albanians (RTS)
• "NATO is eroding and I can only welcome that" (B92)
• France proposes seven-step EU accession process (Hina, N1, EU Observer)
• RFE: Thirteen EU members demand expansion to Western Balkans in a non-paper? (B92, Beta)

Opinion:

• It is in Russia's interest that Kosovo issue remains unresolved? (B92, Kosovo online, RFE)
• Turkish Threat over ISIS Fighters Poses Challenge for Balkans (Balkan Insight) 

International:

• Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic hospitalized with heart condition (DW)

Humanitarian/Development:

• Balkan Coal Power Plants Failing Toxic Emissions Targets (Balkan Insight)

   

Albanian Language Media

  Thaci address international conference on religion in Tirana (media)

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said today in his address at an international conference in Tirana, Albania, entitled “Religion as an instrument for peace” that the Albanian national is an example of religious tolerance, several news outlets report. 

“Kosovo has made numerous achievements. Our first achievements was that we did not allow religion to be involved in our fight for freedom and independence. Our fighters did not allow any ideology to become part of our fight,” Thaci said.

“Religious leaders in Kosovo have built bridges of cooperation. This is our way of sending messages of tolerance and coexistence. We have faced the threat of radicalism in Kosovo, but we reacted immediately. Kosovo today continues to be an active part of the fight against terror,” Thaci said. “Kosovo will always stand against extremism. We have taken measures against those that have incited hatred and who called on others to join in foreign wars. We are working with those that have returned from these wars.”

Vetevendosje rejects NISMA and AKR (Gazeta Express)

Even though the coalition consisting of NISMA, the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) and the Party of Justice (PD) are currently above the election threshold during the ongoing vote recount, the two parties that won the highest number of votes in the October parliamentary elections – the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) – do not view them as partners in an eventual coalition government.

Representatives of the Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement told Express today that the message from the October parliamentary elections was very clear. They said they are currently discussing possible cooperation with non-Serb political parties. 

“The October 6 elections sent a clear message: the people voted for change and that those that were in government until yesterday must go in the opposition. We are focused on a ruling coalition with the LDK. There is also a possibility for cooperation with the non-Serb political parties. The mood in our Movement is not to have a coalition with the NISMA – AKR coalition. The results have not been certified yet and the official results for us are those that were announced by the Central Election Commission,” a member of the Veetvendosje media secretariat was quoted as saying.

LDK MP: There is no problem with votes, new elections in 2023 (Indeksonline)

Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) MP, Haxhi Avdyli, said today that there can be no new parliamentary elections even if the new ruling coalition has only 57 MPs. Avdyli wrote in a Facebook post: “we will go to new elections only if the LDK and LVV [Vetevendosje Movement] agree to go to elections, or if the party that has the right to propose the new Prime Minister, the LVV, does not want to propose its candidate and secure the votes of four MPs from minority communities which it is obliged by the Constitution to have in government”.

“41% of enterprises believe Kosovo–Serbia deal would increase export” (media) 

Kosovo Chamber of Commerce (OEK) head Berat Rukiqi presented today the results of a survey about the opinions of local businesses about an eventual agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, several news websites report. Rukiqi said “41 percent of enterprises in Kosovo believe that exports would increase in the event of a final deal between the two countries”. 

Asked about Serbia’s impact in the development of businesses from Kosovo, 75 percent of businesses said Serbia had a negative impact. “So, there is an overwhelming majority that believes that Kosovo could have had a much faster economic development during this period,” Rukiqi told the press conference. “Serbia had a negative impact and among the key reasons are limiting the exports, the loss of markets, an unfair competition and other issues”.

Major number of Kosovans still in Syria and Iraq, 40 of them ISIS fighters (media)

Despite the 110 people returned from Syria’s conflict zones a few months ago, a major number of Kosovars are still there.

Around 100 people are currently at the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. Officials from Kosovo Police informed that 40 of them remain ISIS and ALNUSRA fighters. “Based on the data that the Directorate Against Terrorism possess, currently there are 100 people from Kosovo, or born at conflict zone from at least one parent from Kosovo, while 40 individuals are considered ISIS or Al-NUSRA fighters.”

Skender Perteshi from Kosovo Center for Security Studies said men who were fighters at foreign wars are being tried and they are currently in prison, as they are considered to represent high level security risk.

“Women are also undergoing trial procedures due to their participation, traveling to Syria and Iraq, and they are currently on house arrest. While the children have returned to their families or with their mothers at the families where they used to live in the past. Based on their age, they are continuing to go either at kindergarten, or continuing with their school education or in certain cases also education at high school level,” Pertreshi said.

He added that reintegration and rehabilitation of these individuals represents a challenge for Kosovo institutions.

“It never happened in the past for Albanians to travel to fight in another country for religious cause, it is the first time and their reintegration and rehabilitation requires entire institutional and social mobilization. It also requires skill and knowledge as it is a very complex problem and institutions have to engage on their rehabilitation and their complete reintegration in the society.”

110 people, from them 74 children, 32 women and four men, who are suspected to have been part of the Islamic state, returned from Syria to Kosovo in April of this year.  

RIDEA presents studies of the final phase of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (Klan)

Research Institute of Development and European Affairs (RIDEA) presented today studies on the final phase of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

Qerim Qerimi from this institute said it is impossible to undo cases of violation of human rights by using the expression that ‘the dead cannot be returned.”

Professor Iraj Hashi said it was not done sufficiently for Trepca adding that this should be the priority of the future government.

“Feasibility studies were also completed as the first step towards revitalizing parts of Trepca. After 2017, following Trepca's law, German foreign companies have conducted a study on Trepca that could be profitable”.

“There is no need for major investments, it can start with three mines and later also with the three others that are under water. There is not much trade interest on zinc and lead.”

“This should be reached through a subvention in order to become operational later. They did not make any recommendations when the other metals such as silver, gold and other rare metals are concerned, saying that another study is required for them.”

“Not much happened about Trepca, we hope that the new government will have Trepca a priority as it is a very important asset of Kosovo,” he said, adding that he is not aware if any pre-calculation of Serbia’s damages on Trepca has taken place, but that there are documents which show the number of the dismissed, amount of their salaries, which have not been paid for ten years.

“The commission must calculate precisely the damage done to Trepca, the assets that were removed, not maintained, and the company then went into debt. What is left is the old equipment, the old facility that needs a great investment. "

   

Serbian Language Media

  Serbian List reactions to a music video filmed at Novo Brdo: Desecration of the Serbian holy shrines with inappropriate behavior (RTS)

“Following the desecration of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour in Pristina by a series of vandalisms,  which culminated with the recording of a video by an Albanian singer, a few days ago, a similar video by an Albanian singer, Albana Azizi, was recorded at St. Nicholas Church in the fortress of Novi Brdo,” Serbian List stated in a press release published on Monday, 18 November.

“The desecration of holy shrines and facilities of Serbian Orthodox Church shows a shameless behaviour that treats the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija in a highly offensive way,” the Serbian List said. 

“Serbian List appeals to the international community to decisively protect our houses of worship. At the same time, we will inform UNESCO and other international organizations dealing with the protection of cultural and religious monuments, as well as the entire Christian world, through the competent institutions, in order to familiarize them with these vandal attacks on the historical and religious facilities of our people,” Serbian List concluded.

Kurti says it's known who killed Kosovo Serb leader (N1, KoSSev, Pobjeda)

Belgrade must extradite Milan Radojicic, one of the suspects in the assassination of Kosovo Serb opposition politician in January 2018, adding "it's known who saw Oliver Ivanovic as a stone in a shoe and who liquidated him," Albin Kurti the likely next Kosovo's prime minister said on Monday as quoted by the local KoSSev website, but fell short of naming anyone.

In an interview with Podgorica's Pobjeda daily, Kurti said that Ivanovic's murder "must be resolved, that all suspects and witnesses must be interviewed," reiterating that Belgrade had to extradite Radoicic.

Ivanovic was gunned down outside his office in the northern part of the divided Mitrovica town, mostly populated by local Serbs, on January 16 last year. Some two months ahead of the assassination, pro-regime media in Serbia branded him a traitor in a campaign for the local elections in Kosovo.

Commenting on the idea of the division of Kosovo, Kurti on Monday said that Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic wanted first to divide Kosovo, and then, together with Croatia, to split Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"All of that would suit Russia, which would, after two failed coup d' état in Montenegro and North Macedonia, return in big style (to the region) with a new armed conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. That eventual conflict could not be localised," Kurti said.

He added that "there is no territory swap with bloodshed".

Speaking about Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci, who he said held secret negotiations with Vucic, Kurti added he believed that Thaci's political career was closing its end.

"Thaci had two years for his, i.e., Vucic's idea on territory swap," Kurti said.

Regarding the resumption of the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relations, Kurti said Kosovo's priority would be "the talks about what had been implemented the agreed deals so far," but reiterated that "dialogue with Brussels about the dialogue with Belgrade" was needed.       

Igor Simic: Kurti is directly interfering in the work of judicial bodies (RTS)

Vice President of Serbian List Igor Simic stated on Monday that the rhetoric which re-heats anti-Serb hysteria in Pristina was continued also “in the kitchen of those who would like to perform the highest functions in Pristina” and added that the leader of Vetevendosje Albin Kurti has once again shown his true face.

In a press statement, Simic pointed out that the fact that Kurti was accusing, without a shred of evidence,  Vice President of Serbian List Milan Radoicic “constitutes direct interference with the judiciary” and raises the question of whether it was permissible for Serbian List representatives to interfere with their work and to evaluate the conduct of proceedings.

“With that statement, Albin Kurti has once again showed his true face and the hypocrisy of his actions, because in his statements he emphasizes that politics and politicians have no right to interfere with the work of the judiciary, and with unjustified attacks on our Vice President he is most directly imposing himself as the judge, jury and executioner, thus violating the basic postulates of the law-presumption of innocence,” explains Simic.

In his press statement, Simic, on behalf of the Serbian List, once again asks: “how is it possible that Kurti has the right to doubt the work of Prosecutor Syle Hoxha, who was involved in the Astrit Dehari’s case and to organize protests against him, but on the other hand has full confidence in him when he is prosecuting without evidence proud and honourable Serbs, and is holding in detention several Serbs without any proof?”

Djuric: Kurti’s intention is to militarize Albanians (RTS)

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija reacted to Albin Kurti’s interview to Podgorica daily Pobjeda and pointed out that Kurti’s intention was to “extremize and militarize Albanians as much as possible by his fascist messages and moves”. 

“Albin Kurti confirms every day how much danger he poses to the stability of the region and entire Europe, and that his sole aim is not to provide a better life for the Albanians, but to harm Serbia and Serbia’s national interests,” Djuric said in a press statement.

He says that, according to dictatorial recipes of the 1930s, Kurti ridicules the principle of peaceful resolution of crises and dialogue, saying that he does not want talks with Belgrade, but “dialogue about the dialogue”, which, Djuric believes, is a euphemism for the complete absence of dialogue.

“He’s mocking the international community and its efforts to help create a zone of stability and security in the Western Balkans, and for now he’s succeeding in doing so and without any sanctions for it,” Djuric said. 

He believes that Kurti’s intention is to extremize and militarize Albanians with his fascist messages and moves “so that in the future, he can impose his Greater-Albanian project under the threat of force”.

“Serbia will never cave in before the threats made by enemies of democracy and peace, and will invest the political, diplomatic and all other means which it has at its disposal to restrain pyromaniac Kurti and his most extreme supporters,” he stated. 

Djuric said that President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic “is a firm guarantor that every possibility of avoiding the conflict with Albanian extremists will be exploited.''

“However, Kurti has long stepped out of the scope of peacetime rhetoric and political practice, and I believe this is the final moment to prevent an arsonist and his dangerous intentions,” Djuric concluded.

"NATO is eroding and I can only welcome that" (B92)

German Parliamentarian Alexander Neu agreed with Macron's statement on the NATO being in crisis, adding that he can only welcome its dissolution

The United States, along with Turkey, is the “grave digger of NATO”, since they have been taking advantage of the alliance exclusively for their own benefit, believes Bundestag deputy and Foreign Policy representative of the parliamentary group Die Linke (The Left) Alexander Neu.

"Until recently, the United States exclusively pursued its own interests, including through NATO, and for several years now, we've witnessed Turkey doing the same... NATO is eroding, and I can only welcome it," Neu said.

The Neu statement comes almost a week after French President Emmanuel Macron called NATO brain-dead, referring to a lack of coordination and US unpredictability under President Donald Trump, Sputnik International reports.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, berated Macron for his “drastic words” and argued that NATO must remain a key pillar of Germany's security.

Nonetheless, the dramatically-worded statement by the French President echoed calls made by Macron and Merkel last year that the EU should have a “real European army” independent of the United States and NATO, to be able to defend itself from perceived threats.

https://bit.ly/2O0XYjz France proposes seven-step EU accession process (Hina, N1, EU Observer)

Western Balkan countries should become EU members, but that should happen through a new step-by-step process, France has proposed.

Last month France vetoed the opening of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia, claiming that the EU should first reform the enlargement policy. Now the country has put forward more specific ideas on what that should look like based on the gradual association of candidate countries before they become full members.

France has circulated to EU diplomats an informal, six-page paper which should serve as the basis for debate in EU institutions.

The first debate could be held on Tuesday at a meeting of the General Affairs Council, and the new European Commission could flesh out more detailed proposals in January 2020.

According to the new French model, cited by the EUobserver website, the new accession process would contain seven steps.

During the EU accession negotiations, candidates must adopt the entire European law, which is divided into 35 chapters. When the negotiations are completed, an accession treaty is signed, and a candidate becomes a full member after the treaty is ratified by all member states.

After the seven-step process, each candidate state would gain access to selected EU policies and programmes.

The seven steps are: rule of law and fundamental rights; education and research; employment and social affairs; financial affairs; the single market, agriculture, and fish; foreign affairs; and "others".

When candidates fulfil step one, they would gain access to Eurojust and Europol, for instance, while step five "would make candidate countries eligible for structural funds."

The French paper "reaffirmed" the EU's "unequivocal support for the European perspective of Western Balkan countries". It did not mention Turkey, which is also an EU candidate, but the talks were suspended three years ago.

https://bit.ly/2XmCrEO RFE: Thirteen EU members demand expansion to Western Balkans in a non-paper? (B92, Beta)

France sent an informal document to EU members, demanding a "renewed approach" in the enlargement process of the Western Balkan countries, RFE has learned

France requests the European Commission (EC) to publish a new methodology of the negotiations with the candidate countries by January 2020.

RFE had insight into the so-called "non-paper" which, among other things, said that political, economic and social transformations required for future accession to the European Union are said to be "too slow" and that concrete benefits for citizens in the candidate countries are insufficient.

The non-paper which RFE had seen also said that “once the negotiations start, the process would not be based on the opening of new chapters, but on several successive phases which would form coherent blocs of policies and a scheme established by the EU, taking care about the specifics of each candidate, where it is appropriate," the document says.

”The document insists on the rule of law and fundamental rights as integral demands from the start of negotiations and a part of all areas in the process".

See more: https://bit.ly/2OnvmzN  

Opinion 

  It is in Russia's interest that Kosovo issue remains unresolved? (B92, Kosovo online, RFE)

"Russia has an interest in not resolving the Kosovo issue because it will not be so attractive to Serbia once it is resolved"

This was stated in an interview with Radio Free Europe by Maxim Samorukov, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

As he claims, when it comes to Russia's ambitions to engage in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, "Russia has an interest in not resolving the issue, thus the statements by Russian officials about reaching a final settlement can be seen as ambiguous".

As in other conflicts in the Western Balkans, Russia does not want the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo resolved. Russia's support at this time is crucial for Serbia, primarily because of the situation in Kosovo. Serbia needs Russia internationally and its power at the United Nations to prevent full recognition of Kosovo. Once the conflict is resolved, Russia will no longer be so attractive to Serbia. But so far, we have seen so many problems and obstacles in the way of resolving this conflict that Russia practically doesn't have to do much to prevent it," he said, as Kosovo online reports.

He further explains that in that sense, the statements coming from Russian officials are ambiguous. On the one hand, Russia says it is ready to support any solution acceptable to Serbia, but on the other hand, it says it should be based on UN Resolution 1244, which hinder Kosovo's independence. And it is with this ambiguity that Russia wants to show Serbia that the Kremlin, in fact, does not approve of Serbia recognizing Kosovo.

"But I would certainly say that Russia is not the main obstacle to resolving this conflict. There are many obstacles at the local level and there is a long way to reach a final agreement, so that Russia can rest assured because the final solution is not in sight," Samorukov said.

He stresses that the Western Balkans is not a priority for Russia and that it is not ready to invest much money or effort into the region, but does not want the West presence in the Balkans either.

"The geopolitical limbo in which the region is currently placed is ideal for Russia. This means neither complete stabilization nor total destabilization, but something in between. Russia does not want frozen conflicts in the Balkans to be resolved, as frozen conflicts keep the Western Balkans away from NATO and the European Union, but Russia also does not want these conflicts to become active, because Russia also has its red line," Samorukov concluded.

https://bit.ly/37fvEl1 Turkish Threat over ISIS Fighters Poses Challenge for Balkans (Balkan Insight) 

Turkey says it is ‘not a hotel’ for ISIS fighters from Europe. But Balkan states are ill-equipped to handle their return.

Countries in the Balkans are fast facing a new challenge stemming from the war in Syria – Turkish pressure for the repatriation of hundreds of Islamic State fighters and their families.

https://bit.ly/34afqra  

International

  Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic hospitalized with heart condition (DW)

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, is in stable condition after being hospitalized with a heart condition. Though he holds a ceremonial position in the Serbian government, he is Serbia's most powerful politician.

https://bit.ly/2NW02ci

Development/Humanitarian

  Balkan Coal Power Plants Failing Toxic Emissions Targets (Balkan Insight)

Coal-fired power plants are struggling to hit targets to reduce toxic emissions, a new report warns.

Coal-fired power plants in the Balkans are failing to hit toxic emissions targets and many face imminent closure if they continue to operate at current rates, the Energy Community warned on Monday in its latest report.

https://bit.ly/2NX9Pz3