UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, December 15, 2021

Hill: If confirmed, normalization of Serbia relations with Kosovo, priority (VoA)
North Macedonia President to visit Kosovo today (media)
LDK appoints Haziri in charge of dialogue and regional cooperation (media)
Haradinaj comments on accusations for meetings with Serb politicians (media)
Pacolli slams Russian ambassador in Belgrade (Gazeta Express)
LDK wins municipality of Dragash, after counting of diaspora votes (media)
Ministry of Justice to adhere to Venice Commission's recommendations (media)
EU states reassert membership promise to six Balkan states (Reuters)
COVID-19: Eight new cases, one death (media)
Ministry of Health: Over 2,100 citizens got the booster in few days (Lajmi)
Kosovo continues to buck fourth COVID-19 wave (Exit News)

Hill: If confirmed, normalization of Serbia relations with Kosovo, priority (VoA)

Christopher Hill, who was nominated as the next U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, said on Tuesday that Serbia should normalize its relations with Kosovo, as a precondition for its membership in the European Union. “The United States strongly supports the European Union-facilitated dialogue as the best chance for both countries to resolve their differences,” Hill said in a statement before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “As President Biden has stated, the United States believes that mutual respect, mutual recognition is the best way forward.”

Hill said the dialogue and normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo would be one of his priorities if his appointment is confirmed. “If confirmed, I will encourage Serbia to work hard and urgently to find a way forward with its neighbor," he said.

Responding to a question from Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen about the role he will play “in trying to encourage Serbia to be a constructive member of the Western Balkans”, the ambassador-designate highlighted the need for progress between Pristina and Belgrade. “There has been some progress in the talks, but there has also been a kind of disappointing lack of progress in the talks. The European Union has made it very clear to Serbia that it has conditioned its membership on resolving these issues,” he said. “For this reason, working with the government in Belgrade and trying to help resolve some of these issues with Kosovo will be very important”.

He also said the United States would look carefully at “who is helping to steer things in the right direction", both in relation to Kosovo and Bosnia.

Hill underlined the importance of Serbia in achieving stability and progress in the Western Balkans. “The United States, together with our European partners, continues to support Serbia's development as a modern, prosperous European country, at peace with its neighbors. Serbia's progress is part of achieving US strategic goals, such as revitalizing of our European alliances, supporting democracy and the rule of law, promoting economic cooperation and addressing global and regional challenges,” he said.

Hill also said that one of his top priorities will be the safety of Americans and American personnel.

“I will continue our long efforts to promote a full investigation into the 1999 murder of the Bytyqi brothers, three American citizens executed while in detention by Serbian police. I am committed to putting pressure on the Serbian government to ensure that those involved are brought to justice.”

He also said he would help Serbia resist malicious influences, including from Russia and China. “It is particularly disturbing to see Serbia, for example, seeking to make military purchases - which are necessary as they are trying to have first-class armies - but it is disturbing that they are turning to Russia for that. And it is also disturbing that "we see that they are looking at China for some of their infrastructure needs," he said.

Hill said it was not enough just to say it was problematic to accept Chinese and Russian offers. “We have to be prepared to show them (Serbia) that we offer a better model, we offer better alternatives for them,” he said, adding that this is what he intends to do as ambassador if confirmed.

North Macedonia President to visit Kosovo today (media)

North Macedonia President Stevo Pendarovski will visit Kosovo today and is scheduled to meet his Kosovo counterpart, Vjosa Osmani. The two leaders will give a joint press briefing after the meeting.

LDK appoints Haziri in charge of dialogue and regional cooperation (media)

Deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lutfi Haziri, said on Tuesday that LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku has appointed him as this party’s official in charge of the dialogue with Serbia and regional cooperation. “The dialogue is one of the first priorities of the LDK … International authorities have said that the Western Balkans cannot continue to live with tensions and with the treat of a time bomb in Europe. So a new momentum is being created for the Balkans and Kosovo and Serbia will be at the core of this, and the time has come for these problems to be resolved once and for all, in order to make way for Kosovo’s future in the European Union, membership in NATO and in permanent friendship with the United States of America,” Haziri wrote in a Facebook post.

Haradinaj comments on accusations for meetings with Serb politicians (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, in an interview with Klan Kosova on Tuesday, commented on accusations by the Vetevendosje Movement for his meeting with some Kosovo Serb politicians who have recently been placed under sanctions by the U.S. administration.

“I will meet the Kosovo Serbs, without prejudices … with the objective of strengthening the state of law and Kosovo. I met Radojicic. I never met Veselinovic or his brother, or the others that are mentioned in the list. I also met Rakic, Slavko Simic and the others who are in parliament now,” he said.

“I met them, and we had political discussions. My goal has always been to convince Kosovo Serbs to have faith in Kosovo and I make the same call here today. My goal is to convince the Kosovo Serbs and those living in the north that their children can serve in the Kosovo Army, in the Kosovo Security Force, and that they should not fear the Kosovo Army. My goal is to convince the Kosovo Serbs that it is better to side with the West and with the United States than with Russia, this especially goes for Serbs living in Kosovo.”

Pacolli slams Russian ambassador in Belgrade (Gazeta Express)

Leader of the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR), Behgjet Pacolli, took to Facebook on Tuesday to comment on a statement by Russian Ambassador to Belgrade, Aleksandar Kharchenko, who said that Kosovo’s request for recognition from Serbia was “nonsense”. Pacolli wrote: “a diplomat from a great country like Russia … must be educated, smart and wise and behave in line with the code of diplomacy. The Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Belgrade has shown that he lacks all these and that he is full of hatred and frustration against Kosovo and Albanians, although he was a close associate of President Ahtisaari who wrote the final document for the United Nations Secretary General about the Status of the Republic of Kosovo”. According to Pacolli, any normal superior officer would fire Kharchenko for his statements before students in Belgrade.

LDK wins municipality of Dragash, after counting of diaspora votes (media)

The candidate of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) for mayor of Dragash municipality, Bexhet Xheladini, was declared a winner after the counting of the diaspora votes. The Supreme Court of Kosovo had ordered a recount of votes from the diaspora after the LDK had filed a complaint.

Ministry of Justice to adhere to Venice Commission's recommendations (media)

Kosovo's Minister of Justice Albulena Haxhiu said that the recommendations provided by the Venice Commission on the reforming of the prosecutorial system will be strongly adhered to.

"I am very happy that the Venice Commission, through the opinion which is now public, has given a positive recommendation for decreasing mandates of KPC (Kosovo Prosecutorial Council) members, from 13 to 7, and has also given a positive recommendation for terminating the mandate for some KPC members," Haxhiu said. "I understand that the justice reform does not suit some portals but there is nothing we can do about it other than engage much more until Kosovo becomes a rule of law country," she concluded.

The Prosecutorial Council has also welcomed the opinion saying it has ensured independence of the prosecutorial system and has concluded that the initiatives of the Ministry of Justice to change the law on the KPC are in violation to international standards, namely with regards to appointment of lay members.

At the same time, Ehat Miftaraj from the Kosovo Law Institute said that the Venice Commission's opinion marks the start of the prosecutorial system's reform and that it has approved the main request of the Ministry of Justice on ending the mandate of the majority of current council members.

Read the Venice Commission opinion here: https://bit.ly/3GKlmtV

EU states reassert membership promise to six Balkan states (Reuters)

European Union governments reaffirmed on Tuesday their promise to allow six Balkan countries to one day join the bloc, nudging the EU towards finally opening talks with North Macedonia and Albania.

For over a year, the EU's plan to build a "ring of friends" from Ukraine to Tunisia by offering closer ties, trade and aid has been paralysed, in part because European politicians fear a backlash over migration. The Balkan states include Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia.

"The Council reaffirms its commitment to enlargement, which remains a key policy of the European Union," the bloc's 27 European affairs ministers said in a policy statement. "The Council reiterates the EU's unequivocal support to the European perspective of the Western Balkans," the bloc added.