• Kosovo PM says tensions with Serbs in north could escalate (Reuters)
• Osmani: EU to be more vocal against Serbia’s destabilizing tendencies (media)
• Kurti, Vucic expected to sign joint statement on missing persons (media)
• Kosovo minister says Belgrade backing criminals (N1)
• COMKFOR meets commander of NATO, discuss security in Kosovo (RTK)
• Haradinaj presents three options how to reach Kosovo-Serbia agreement (RTK)
• Kosovo: a cap gun on the wall, a mine in the drawer (TVP World)
• Kosovo allocates 40 million Euros for Serbs’ unpaid electricity (BIRN)
• Muslims in Kosovo demand that headscarf be allowed in schools (euronews.al)
• NATO evaluating proposal for naval base in Durres (Albanian Daily News)

Kosovo PM says tensions with Serbs in north could escalate (Reuters)

Kosovo is prepared to stand against a possible attack by Serbia as worsening strife with minority Serbs could result in a new armed conflict, Prime Minister Albin Kurti told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared again earlier this month when Pristina said it would oblige Serbs living in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and do not recognise Kosovo institutions, to start using license plates issued in Pristina.

The situation calmed after Kurti, under U.S. and European Union pressure, agreed to postpone the car number plates rule until Sept. 1 and NATO peacekeepers supervised the removal of roadblocks set up by Serbs.

"We should not exclude that these aggressive policies of Belgrade could also turn into an assault against Kosovo in one way or the other," Kurti told Reuters, speaking in English. “We are vigilant, but not afraid.

Read more at: https://reut.rs/3p7QdKn

Osmani: EU to be more vocal against Serbia’s destabilizing tendencies (media)

President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, said on Wednesday during a meeting with the Austrian Ambassador, Christoph Weidinger, that the European Union should be more vocal against Serbia’s destabilizing tendencies in Kosovo and the region. Osmani and Weidinger talked about the latest developments in the north of Kosovo, with Osmani saying that Kosovo’s institutions are committed to continuing the full coordination with international partners in the same manner as they have been coordinated to date. Osmani also said that Kosovo remains committed to contributing to peace and stability in the region.

Kurti, Vucic expected to sign joint statement on missing persons (media)

According to some media in Belgrade, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who are scheduled to meet on August 18 in Brussels, will sign a joint statement to resolve the issue of missing persons during the war in Kosovo. According to Nova, the text of the statement has already been harmonized. The signing of the statement will be presented as a major step forward in the relations between the two sides. “The statement will give support to the process of finding missing persons and resolving their fates. The document should be signed by Kurti and Vucic … The text has been finalized and the moment of signing is expected,” an unnamed source told Nova.

Kosovo minister says Belgrade backing criminals (N1)

Kosovo Internal Affairs Minister Xhelal Svecla told N1 on Wednesday that criminals in Kosovo have the political backing of Belgrade for their illegal activities.

According to the minister, Kosovo has been a virtual El Dorado for criminals over the past 20 years. He said that Serbs, Albanians and Bosniaks are involved in crime which has political support from Belgrade and cited the example of Serb List deputy leader Milan Radoicic who has been blacklisted by Washington and is wanted on corruption charges in Kosovo and still enjoys the support of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. The Minister said there is no cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina on the Radoicic case.

“A look at the security situation in the north leads us to realize that this is not just a recent crisis. The north of Kosovo, the four (majority Serb) municipalities in the north were a black hole in terms of rule of law. This is an area with a very high level of smuggling and various crimes committed with impunity,” Svecla said. “We have criminals who went from poverty or middle class to becoming multi-millionaires thanks to criminal activity which has been tolerated for more than 20 years. I have received dozens if not hundreds of complaints from people who were pressured by criminal groups. Those groups don’t just want to be rich, they are an obstacle to normal life with their arrogant bandit behavior. Our priority is to establish legality there,” the minister said.

The minister recalled that the Kosovo police discovered five drug laboratories and illegal Bitcoin mining operations in the past few months alone as well as truckloads of smuggled goods.

“There is a clear link between politics and crime and when I say crime I mean multi-national links. We arrested a number of criminal groups made up of Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks from both Kosovo and Serbia,” Svecla said.

According to the minister, the Serbian government is tolerating those criminal groups and supporting them with the intention of exerting pressure on the local population in the north of Kosovo.

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

COMKFOR meets commander of NATO, discuss security in Kosovo (RTK)

KFOR has announced that the commander of the NATO-led KFOR mission Major General Ferenc Kajari received in a meeting at Camp Film City, KFOR Headquarters in Pristina, the commander of NATO's Rapidly Deployable Troops in Greece, Lieutenant General Sotirios Kostakoglu.

"During their talks, the KFOR commander informed about KFOR activities and discussed the general security situation in Kosovo. General Kajari expressed his appreciation for the dedication and professionalism of the Greek soldiers within KFOR," the announcement states.

Haradinaj presents three options how to reach Kosovo-Serbia agreement (RTK)

The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj presented to the public three scenarios, for the reach of comprehensive agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

He said that the first scenario is an intensive communication between the institutions of Kosovo and the Quint ambassadors, with the Serbs of Kosovo, especially with the Serbs in the north, at all possible levels, from now until September 1.

Haradinaj presented ‘commitment to restrained positions after the meeting on August 18 and in no way warmongering rhetoric’ as the second possibility.

According to him, the third scenario could be that the EU leaders hand over the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue agenda to U.S. President Biden, in order to invite the leaders of the two countries for the final agreement on mutual recognition as soon as possible.

"It is understandable that Kosovo should do its homework, the law on salaries and the benefits for the Kosovo police," Haradinaj wrote.

Kosovo: a cap gun on the wall, a mine in the drawer (TVP World)

Another border sparring between Serbia and Kosovo is behind us, and there will probably be another one ahead. Even minor administrative issues, such as the current dispute over the exchange of number plates from Serbian to Kosovar, touch on issues fundamental to both sides: the refusal to acknowledge everything that has happened in northern Kosovo in the 21st century.

War reporters and TV crews, who had already begun to be pulled from their vacations, had not had time to start packing for good when the alert was called off. Border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia have been opened again, mysterious gunshots during the night have subsided, the head of EU diplomacy stressed on Twitter that “open issues should be resolved through EU-supported dialogue”. There was even a prospect of talks between Kosovo and Serbian representatives in mid-August that are as ritualistic as they are routine.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3JOew9O

Kosovo allocates 40 million Euros for Serbs’ unpaid electricity (BIRN)

The Kosovo government has allocated €40 million to cover unpaid electricity in the four Serb-dominated municipalities in the north. The funds will be allocated to the Kosovo Energy Distribution and Supply Company, KOSTT.

Kosovo’s Minister of Finance and Transfers, Hekuran Murati, said the funds would be allocated to extend an agreement with ENTSO-E, the European Network for Transmission System Operators for Electricity, and to respect the obligations stemming from this agreement.

“The KOSTT is going through financial difficulties because of obligations it has toward ENTSO; in order for us to continue to be on the same regulatory bloc and to implement the agreement that has been in place for two years, now is the time to extend it,” Murati said.

The KOSTT began to operate independently from Serbian operator EMS across the whole of Kosovo in December 2020 and then became part of ENTSO-E in a joint energy bloc with Albania.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3JJqXU9

Muslims in Kosovo demand that headscarf be allowed in schools (euronews.al)

The Islamic Community of Kosovo, its institutions and Muslim believers have requested the repeal of the administrative order denying the right to education for students who wear headscarves.

The community says that this is discriminatory, so it asks the Ministry of Education and Prime Minister Albin Kurti to cancel the decision as soon as possible.

The request, argues the Islamic Community of Kosovo, is long-standing, so it should not be politicized and polarized, but it should be treated with maximum accountability.

The ban on headscarves in schools has provoked strong reactions in Kosovo since it was invoked back in 2010.

Earlier, protests have also been organized in front of government institutions, demanding the repeal of the Administrative Order that prohibits the wearing of headscarves by Muslim students in Kosovo’s schools.

NATO evaluating proposal for naval base in Durres (Albanian Daily News)

NATO is evaluating the Albanian government's proposal for the co- financing of a naval military base in the new commercial port of Porto Romano, Durres. Asked about NATO expansion in the next ten years, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders reiterated in Madrid that NATO's open-door policy remains in place. Commenting on the construction of a naval base in the Adriatic Sea that NATO is negotiating with Albania and other possible investments and the deployment of troops in the region, Stoltenberg said that the new Strategic Concept of NATO, approved at the Madrid Summit, also confirms once more the strategy of the Western Balkans, which is important for the Alliance.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3C2X2EN