• COVID – 19: 287 new cases, six deaths (media)
• Osmani, Kurti visit Mitrovica North, locals protest (media)
• Kosnett: US never supported land swap idea (media)
• Smith: Charges are against individuals, not against KLA or Kosovo (Koha)
• Haradinaj: America is Kosovo’s guardian angel (media)
• Hoxhaj: We’ll end isolation; strengthen ties with U.S. and Germany (media)
• Kosovo, Israel to establish diplomatic relations today (media)
• Haradinaj hails Israel announcement on diplomatic relations (Prishtina Insight)
• Von Cramon: Idea of national unification, not right for Kosovo (media)
• Kosovo election complaint highlights problem in proving ethnic identity (BIRN)
• Vucic says visits by Kosovo politicians in the north are “provocations” (media)
• Feasibility study, making Serbia shareholder in Gazivoda Lake, begins (Koha)

COVID – 19: 287 new cases, six deaths (media)

287 new cases of COVID – 19 and six deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 229 persons have recovered from the virus during this time. There are 6,662 active cases of COVID – 19 in Kosovo.

Osmani, Kurti visit Mitrovica North, locals protest (media)

All media covered the visit to Mitrovica North on Saturday by Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani and Vetevendosje Movement leader Albin Kurti. Some news websites showed videos of local Serbs booing Osmani and Kurti during their visit. A spokesman for the Vetevendosje Movement said the visit went according to plan. “They [Osmani and Kurti] were welcomed by the citizens of Mitrovica but not by the structures of Belgrade’s Serbian List operating there … Their reactions today show best that Kurti and Osmani are in fact the antipode of the Serbian List too,” the spokesman said.

Kosnett: US never supported land swap idea (media)

The United States Ambassador to Kosovo, Phillip Kosnett, said in an interview with Radio KiM on Sunday that a land swap between Kosovo and Serbia was not supported by the Trump administration and that it will not be supported by the Biden administration either. He said given the very little support the idea has in Kosovo, he does not expect the initiative will be discussed.

Kosnett said he expects that after the September 2021 agreement at the White House, there will be more talks between the Kosovo and Serbia delegations. “I don’t think that the commitments of President Vucic and Prime Minister Hoti in September are no longer in force. We believe these commitments will reman in force and remain valid. I am confident there will be more talks. Not everyone is satisfied with the process that led to the commitments in September and my call is for people to focus less on the process and politics and to see what the two governments have committed for. I think this will create economic opportunities for people in the region and improve transport links,” he said

Kosnett said the Biden administration will remain fully committed to progress in the Western Balkans and recalled the remarks of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken applauding the efforts of the previous administration and Richard Grenell to improve relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Smith: Charges are against individuals, not against KLA or Kosovo (Koha)

Jack Smith, Specialist Prosecutor with Kosovo’s Specialist Chambers in The Hague, said in a front-page interview with the paper that the indictments by the Specialist Chambers are not against the Kosovo Liberation Army or Kosovo but against individuals.

Smith said he is confident that the indictments prepared by his office are sustainable and that the court has provided the defense teams with enough time to prepare.

Smith also said that “as we have argued in court, delaying the start of the trial [Thaci and others] beyond September 2021 for the needs of preparing for trial is unfounded”.

Haradinaj: America is Kosovo’s guardian angel (media)

Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) leader and candidate for Kosovo President, Ramush Haradinaj, said in a debate on T7 on Sunday evening that the United States of America are Kosovo’s guardian angel and that Albanians are the most pro-American nation.

Haradinaj said he is thankful on behalf of the people of Kosovo for the sacrifice of the American people and their troops in Kosovo’s defense. “We must safeguard our ties with America,” he added.

Haradinaj also said that whoever forms the new government after the February 14 parliamentary elections, must not make experiments in relations with Kosovo’s traditional allies. “We must know where we are going and what is our orientation. I love America and I trust America. The new government must respect our allies,” he said.

Hoxhaj: We will end isolation and strengthen ties with U.S. and Germany (media)

Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader and candidate for Prime Minister, Enver Hoxhaj, and PDK MP candidate Memli Krasniqi presented on Sunday their party’s plan for foreign policy. They said the plan aims to end the isolation of Kosovo’s citizens and to strengthen political and economic ties with the United States of America and Germany.

Hoxhaj said Kosovo’s main challenges will be membership of the United Nations, the European Union and NATO, and concluding the dialogue with Serbia.

“The position of the Democratic Party of Kosovo is clear. Kosovo will not make any compromise that goes beyond the Ahtisaari Package, that violates the Constitution, or which threatens Kosovo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Hoxhaj also said that “while Kosovo has met all the requirements for visa liberalisation, the European Union has been unjust towards us and treated Kosovo’s people and second-class citizens. This approach must end”.

Kosovo, Israel to establish diplomatic relations today (media)

Most news websites report that Kosovo and Israel will establish diplomatic relations starting from today. Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meliza Haradinaj - Stublla, said in a Facebook post that the signing of the agreement with her Israeli counterpart, Gabriel Ashkenazi, will be done through an online ceremony.

“On Feb 1st, with a solemn virtual ceremony, Rep. of Kosovo & the State of Israel will sign the agreement to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries,” Haradinaj – Stublla said in a Twitter post.

Kosovo and Serbia signed an agreement on economic normalisation at the White House on September 4 last year. Part of the agreement is Israel’s agreement to recognise Kosovo and to establish diplomatic relations.

Haradinaj hails Israel announcement on diplomatic relations (Prishtina Insight)

Foreign Minister welcomed establishing formal bilateral relations with Israel, considering it as ‘one of the greatest achievements for Kosovo’ and thanked US for its support.

Kosovo’s Foreign Minister, Meliza Haradinaj, has announced on social media that Israel and Kosovo will establish formal diplomatic relations at the beginning of February, calling it a diplomatic breakthrough and thanking the US for its help.

“Recognition from Israel is one of the greatest achievements for Kosovo, coming at a key moment for us, thanks to the United States of America, our common and eternal ally,” Haradinaj said in a video message.

“This historic moment comes at a very important moment for us and is a perpetuation of this friendship through the signing of diplomatic relations,” Haradinaj added.

Israel and Kosovo first agreed to recognise one another on September 4 last year, when Kosovo and Serbia signed an economic normalisation agreement in Washington under US auspices that included Kosovo’s recognition by close US ally Israel. But no embassies have been opened as yet.

Former US President Donald Trump hosted a telephone meeting between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and acting Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, saying: “Kosovo and Israel have agreed to normalization of ties and the establishment of diplomatic relations.”

In his phone call, Hoti meanwhile pledged to open an embassy in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv – drawing criticism from European partners that have mostly held to a policy of not recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ahead of a broad Israel-Palestine settlement.

The EU spokesperson, Peter Stano, stated then that the European Union’s foreign policy remained clear about not opening embassies in Jerusalem. “There is no EU member state with an embassy in Jerusalem, the EU delegation is not in Jerusalem,” Stano said.

“The EU has repeatedly reaffirmed our commitment to a negotiated and viable two-state solution. Part of this two-negotiated solution is also an agreement on final status issues, [including] Jerusalem,” he added.

Apart from the US under President Trump, in 2017, no other key partner to Kosovo has recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

However, Acting Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti expressed dedication to opening an embassy in Jerusalem a day after the agreement was signed.

Antigona Baxhaku, spokesperson for the Kosovo government, told Prishtina Insight that she possessed no details of the content of the agreement that will be signed next week beyond that it will reflect what was already agreed last year in Washington DC.

A point in the economic normalization agreement included mutual recognition between Kosovo and Israel but did not explicitly state the opening of a Kosovo embassy in Jerusalem.

Mutual recognition is seen as beneficial to both states. Israel has struggled to win recognition from majority-Muslim countries, while Kosovo is still struggling to gain diplomatic acceptance round the world more than a decade after it proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008. Five EU member states have not recognised it and it is not yet a UN member state either.

Von Cramon: Idea of national unification, not right for Kosovo (media)

European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Kosovo, Viola von Cramon, said on Sunday that it would be a wrong approach for Kosovo to think it can resolve its problems through an eventual unification with Albania.

“It is wrong to compare the idea of unification with Albania as an alternative to membership in the European Union, especially as a reserve option, if Kosovo remains outside the EU for a longer period of time,” she said in an interview with TV Dukagjini.

“Such a referendum would not help anyone, and it definitely wouldn’t help Kosovo’s difficulties in the international arena.”

Kosovo election complaint highlights problem in proving ethnic identity (BIRN)

A decision to bar a candidate from standing as a Bosniak in the Kosovo election – because he is allegedly Albanian – has highlighted the current legal confusion over confirming one's ethnic identity in the country.

A decision by Kosovo’s Election Complaints and Appeals Panel to bar a candidate from running in the February 14 elections – because he is standing for an ethnic Bosniak party and is allegedly Albanian, not Bosniak – has raised a dilemma about people’s rights in Kosovo to determine and confirm their ethnicity.

Emin Neziraj was intending to stand as a candidate in the election for the ethnic Bosniak New Democratic Party, NDS.

Neziraj told BIRN that his party had submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court over the PZAP decision that stops him from running, insisting he has all the necessary documents to prove he is, in fact, an ethnic Bosniak.

“I have filed the appeal at the Supreme Court where we [NDS] have noted that some points [of the PZAP decision] do not match. In the Kosovo system, there is no space for someone to claim an ethnic identity – all that is possible is getting a certificate from a special office in the municipality stating that you are of a certain ethnicity,” Neziraj told BIRN Kosovo.

The dispute started after the PZAP on January 23 accepted a complaint about Neziraj from a rival Bosniak party running in the election, the Social Democratic Union, SDU.

The SDU said Neziraj had admitted he was Albanian on Facebook on October 7, 2017, and should not therefore run in the election as a member of a different ethnic community.

The PZAP justified its decision citing concerns that, as an ethnic Albanian, Neziraj might “protect the interests of Albanians, having run on the list of a party from the Bosniak community”, creating “uncertainty about the equitable representation of that community for which seats are reserved” in the national parliament.

Kosovo’s constitution describes the country as a “multi-ethnic society consisting of Albanians and other communities”, defining a community as a group of inhabitants with shared “national or ethnic, linguistic, or religious”  background that have been “traditionally present on the territory of the Republic of Kosovo”.

Twenty of the 120 seats in the Kosovo’s Assembly are reserved for these non-Albanian communities – 10 for the Serbs and 10 for other minority communities – Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Bosniak, Turkish, and Gorani, with a number of guaranteed seats specified for each community.

The Central Election Commission, CEC, has meanwhile justified its decision to certify Neziraj as an NSD candidate based on the difficulty of proving the ethnicity of an individual via the “civil registry database because their ethnicity is not mentioned in any document”.

The Interior Ministry agrees. “Ethnicity is not recorded in the civil status documents or the central civil registry,” its media office told BIRN.

Neziraj said the only way he can prove he is an ethnic Bosniak and not an Albanian is to obtain “confirmation at the special office [for Communities and Returnees] in the municipality that declares your ethnicity … the document that I am a member of the NDS party, and they confirm the municipal certificate that I am Bosniak, and my university diploma, finished in the Bosnian language,” Neziraj told BIRN, showing his documents.

Neziraj insists he only finished a master’s degree in Albanian because many ethnic Bosniaks in Kosovo choose to study in Albanian, or Serbian, due to the lack of undergraduate and graduate programs in their language in Kosovo’s public universities.

Vucic says visits by Kosovo politicians in the north are “provocations” (media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday that the visit to the north by Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani and Vetevendosje Movement leader Albin Kurti are provocations by Albanians against the Serbs. “Now there is hysteria about the elections, because the coalition around Haradinaj is expected to win,” he said before meeting French President Emmanuel Macron. Vucic also thanked Serbs in the north for their restrained reactions during the visit and added that “peace must be safeguarded”.

Feasibility study, making Serbia shareholder in Gazivoda Lake, begins (Koha)

The paper reports in one of its front-page stories this morning that Kosovo’s authorities have become involved in the initiative which aims to make Serbia a shareholder in the Gazivoda Lake. A working group established by outgoing Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti has collected a lot of data and maintained communication with the U.S. Department for Energy, in the function of the feasibility study for a process aimed at the joint utilization of the lake by the two countries.