Albanian Language Media:

• Escobar: There are concerns Kosovo might not have votes for CoE (RFE)
• Italy: Only sending draft to court includes Kosovo on Committee’ agenda (Express)
• Association – an obstacle on Kosovo’s path toward CoE (Radio Free Europe)
• O’Brien, Escobar and Lajcak coordinate strategies for Kosovo and Serbia (Koha)
• Osmani: Kosovo, success story of values of freedom and democracy nurtured by U.S. (media)
• Osmani meets Bush, “staunch champion of Kosovo” (media)
• Online platform for communities inaugurated (media)
• Kurti: Reducing administrative burden, important step for all citizens to have equal opportunities to benefit from government services (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Italian ambassador: Not the time for Kosovo to join the Council of Europe; the A/CSM is condition (N1, Tanjug)
• O'Brien, Escobar and Lajcak: USA supports dialogue leading to productive relations (Kosovo Online)
• Switching to Kosovo driver's licenses: Additional costs, Serbian health certificate unacceptable  (N1, KoSSev)
• Vucic: China to back Serbia on all issues raised in UN (Tanjug)
• Vucic, Xi sign joint statement, 28 agreements on cooperation exchanged (Tanjug, media)

International Media:

• Gabriel Escobar Unveils The Message Miroslav Lajcak Will Convey To Belgrade And Pristina From Foggy Bottom (thepavlovictoday.com)
• Kosovo PM Hits Out At 'Conditions' To Join European Rights Body (barrons.com)

Albanian Language Media

Escobar: There are concerns Kosovo might not have votes for CoE (RFE)

U.S. Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said on Wednesday that several member states of the Council of Europe have asked Kosovo to establish the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. In a meeting with reporters, he said that the issue of the Association and several issues related to the Serb minority, which have not been resolved, have been continuous requests. “This is causing concerns that Kosovo might not have the votes for the Council of Europe,” he argued.

Escobar said that the U.S. does not have a vote in the European organization for human rights, but that Washington’s position is that Kosovo should be a full-fledged member of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations “and we will continue to work for this”. “In terms of European integration, I think it is important for Kosovo to listen to its European allies and to work with them, while we strengthen Kosovo’s candidacy in all Euro-Atlantic structures,” he said.

Asked if the issue of the Association and the Council of Europe are linked, Escobar said “they are very much linked”. “First, the Council of Europe has to do with the treatment of minorities and Kosovo has made a clear commitment for the treatment of minorities and this includes the Association too. This is an earlier commitment which is written in the Ahtisaari Plan too, and it is also part of the Brussels and Ohrid agreement,” he said.

Italy: Only sending draft to court includes Kosovo on Committee’ agenda (Express)

The Italian Embassy in Pristina told the news website on Wednesday that Kosovo can be included on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe only if the Kosovo Government makes concrete steps on the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. “In our opinion, sending the EU draft statute on the Association to the Constitutional Court, in a way that is acceptable for the court, would send a strong signal for the government’s intention to meet this obligation and would further demonstrate Kosovo’s commitment to minority rights. In other words, this means that only concrete steps toward the Association of Serb-majority municipalities would lead to including the Kosovo point on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,” the embassy said.

Association – an obstacle on Kosovo’s path toward CoE (Radio Free Europe)

The German Embassy in Pristina confirmed to the news website on Wednesday that in order to support Kosovo’s efforts to join the Council of Europe, western countries introduced a condition for Kosovo: make concrete steps on the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities. “Sending the draft statute [of the Association] to the Constitutional Court, would be such a step,” the embassy said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti rejected this condition on Wednesday saying that it is not related to Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe. Addressing the government meeting, he said that the issue of the Association is related to the dialogue for the normalization of relations with Serbia. On the same day, the U.S. Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said in an online meeting with reporters that there are concerns that Kosovo might not have the votes to join the Council of Europe. He said that several members of the Council of Europe have asked Kosovo to establish the Association and that this is a continuous request of the international community.

O’Brien, Escobar and Lajcak coordinate strategies for Kosovo and Serbia (Koha)

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, James O’Brien, U.S. Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, and EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, met to coordinate on strategies on the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. O’Brien said in a post on X after the meeting that they had important discussions to coordinate strategies for moving Kosovo and Serbia forward in the EU-facilitated Dialogue. “U.S. strongly supports the Dialogue as the path to peaceful, productive relations,” he said. Lajcak said in a post on X: “A pleasure to meet with Jim O’Brien and Deputy Assistant Secretary Escobar in Washington today to discuss the way ahead in the Dialogue and other regional issues in the Western Balkans. We reconfirmed our excellent EU-US cooperation.”

Osmani: Kosovo, success story of values of freedom and democracy nurtured by U.S. (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said in a post on X on Wednesday that at the World Affairs Council in Dallas they had “a substantial discussion about Kosovo’s journey and recent developments, amidst the complexities of global challenges”. She also said that “Kosovo stands as a story of the success of the values of freedom and democracy, nurtured by U.S. support”.

Osmani meets Bush, “staunch champion of Kosovo” (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani during her stay in the U.S. met with former President George W. Bush. “Enough is enough. Kosovo is independent," were the historic words from President George W. Bush in 2007, etching a firm affirmation of Kosovo's right to independence in the annals of history. It was an honor to meet with President Bush, a staunch champion for the Republic of Kosovo, who remains a true friend and supporter of our people,” Osmani wrote in a post on X.

Online platform for communities inaugurated (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Wednesday at the inauguration of the online platform for communities that “creating more and better channels of communication with our citizens from non-majority communities has been one of our priorities”. “It is not enough to allocate millions of Euros for non-majority communities - €3 million last year, and an additional €1 million last month – for grants for farmers, for existing and new businesses, or for NGOs that work on employment. We need to make sure that everyone has information and can apply for these opportunities,” he said.

Kurti: Reducing administrative burden, important step for all citizens to have equal opportunities to benefit from government services (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti attended the conference organized by the Prime Minister’s Office and the German GIZ on the topic, “How non-majority communities can benefit from the Reduction of Administrative Burden”. German ambassador to Kosovo, Joern Rohde, and the deputy head of the EU mission in Kosovo, Eva Palatova, also attended the event.

Kurti said in his opening remarks that “the public administration is the field where we serve the citizens, therefore it is a priority of the Government and that our goal is that every citizen has easy access to public services at a real cost for procedures”. “Reducing the administrative burden is an important step to ensure that all communities in Kosovo have equal opportunities to benefit from government services and resources”, said Prime Minister Kurti, adding that the effort to guarantee equal access to public services for all citizens, is a part of the depth of the process of governance and development of a country.

Kurti mentioned the areas in which the reduction of the administrative burden will have a positive impact. He singled out the field of education, where reducing the administrative burden will facilitate the registration process in educational institutions and increase the opportunities for citizens to benefit from higher education; the field of health, where the reduction of the administrative burden will bring an improvement in access and quality of health care for all citizens; meanwhile, from an economic point of view, such a thing will affect the creation of a more favorable environment for carrying out the necessary procedures for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/dquC9

Serbian Language Media

Italian ambassador: Not the time for Kosovo to join the Council of Europe; the A/CSM is condition (N1, Tanjug)

Italian Ambassador to Serbia Luca Gori assessed last night that the time has not yet come for the membership of Kosovo in the Council of Europe and emphasized that substantial progress in the formation of the Association/Community of Serbian Municipalities (A/CSM) is necessary for such a thing, reported N1, citing Tanjug.

"That is the position that Italy took together with France, Germany and other EU member states and that is what we are trying to achieve in Strasbourg," Gori emphasized for Tanjug regarding the request to postpone the Council of Europe's decision on Kosovo's membership.

The ambassador added that Italy's position is very clear, and that Rome believes that the A/CSM is a key element for the normalization process between Belgrade and Pristina.

"That is why we are convinced that if there is no substantial progress in relation to this goal, it is not the right moment to deal with or put the issue of Kosovo's candidacy for the Council of Europe on the agenda," the ambassador said.

When asked about the steps Italy is taking to postpone Kosovo's membership in the CoE, Ambassador Gori reminds that steps have already been taken in Strasbourg in coordination with other EU member states.

"We are trying to encourage the Kosovo authorities to make progress on the matter of the Association/Community, but so far we have not seen any progress," said Gori and repeated that Italy's position is that it is not yet the right time for Kosovo's membership in the CoE.

O'Brien, Escobar and Lajcak: USA supports dialogue leading to productive relations (Kosovo Online)

US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien spoke today with the US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, and the EU Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, and during the meeting it was stated that the US strongly supports the EU-sponsored dialogue. O'Brien announced the meeting on the X social network.

"Important discussions with Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar and EUSR Miroslav Lajcak today." We coordinated strategies for moving Kosovo and Serbia forward in the EU-facilitated Dialogue. The U.S. strongly supports the Dialogue as the path to peaceful, productive relations,'' wrote O'Brien on X last night.

Switching to Kosovo driver's licenses: Additional costs, Serbian health certificate unacceptable (N1, KoSSev)

The Kosovo MIA released new details on the process of switching from driver's licenses issued by the Republic of Serbia for citizens of Kosovo to Kosovo's driver licenses. One of the required documents is a Kosovo health certificate, that is, one issued by Serbian health institutions will not be accepted, reported N1, citing KoSSev.

The price of the certificate varies depending on the vehicle category, while it is also necessary to pay a fee of 15 euros, writes KoSSev.

Although it has been confirmed that Serbian licenses will be returned to applicants along with new Kosovo ones, it is still not clear whether they will be able to be used outside of Kosovo. The ministry only repeats that they will be "invalid".

The decision to enable the transition from driver's licenses issued by the Republic of Serbia for citizens in Kosovo to Kosovo's driver licenses was made yesterday by the Kosovo MIA, while PM Kurti previously informed the public about it in a video address in Serbian.

The deadline for switching to Kosovo licenses expires on August 9 this year, and after that, as announced, the use of driver's licenses "issued by illegal Serbian authorities" will be prohibited. The Kosovo MIA issued a new announcement yesterday, announcing that "conversion of driver's licenses issued by illegal Serbian structures for a driver's license of the Republic of Kosovo" will be enabled from May 10.

Vucic: China to back Serbia on all issues raised in UN (Tanjug)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday Serbia would have China's firm support on all issues raised in the UN and that a joint statement signed by him and Chinese President Xi Jinping raised the level of bilateral relations from strategic ties to a community with a shared future in the new era as the highest form of cooperation between Serbia and China.

"I am proud to have been able to sign such a statement with Xi. We have enormous respect for China," Vucic said at a press conference with Xi. The joint statement is a strategically important direction for development of bilateral relations, as well as for our view of the world, Vucic said. He noted that Serbia supported the One China principle and that, for Serbia, any questions asked about Taiwan, Xinjiang or Hong Kong were internal affairs of the People's Republic of China.

"It is a question for the People's Republic of China. The way China wants to solve those things is the way it is going to be. They will always have the support of the Republic of Serbia for that because that is what the UN Charter and international public law rest upon," Vucic said.

He noted that he was grateful to Xi for very clear positions on the Kosovo issue and the territorial integrity of Serbia. "But - I quote President Xi - the Republic of Serbia will also have firm support of the People's Republic of China on all issues raised in the UN. That is extremely important for us and I spoke to President Xi about everything we are facing," Vucic said, thanking China for the support. Despite the fact Serbia is under pressure from many of the world's biggest powers, it is fortunate to always have had a friend in the People's Republic of China, he said.

"Today, I told President Xi, our great friend, that Serbia, despite being a small country, would resist, very strongly and bravely, attempts of revision of historical memory as well as further pressure on the Republic of Serbia, and that our resistance would be incomparably stronger than some might imagine," Vucic noted. He also said China had been the largest foreign investor in Serbia in 2021-2023.

"It is the second-largest partner in goods trade. Our exports to China have risen by 140 times in the past ten years. Our goods trade, direct trade between our countries, rose by as much as eight times in the past ten years. Investments in the Republic of Serbia from the People's Republic of China rose by 30 times in the past ten years," Vucic said.

Vucic, Xi sign joint statement, 28 agreements on cooperation exchanged (Tanjug, media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed on Wednesday in Belgrade a joint statement on raising the level of the bilateral strategic partnership and building a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era.

At a ceremony, Serbia and China also exchanged 28 documents on cooperation.

International Media 

Gabriel Escobar Unveils The Message Miroslav Lajcak Will Convey To Belgrade And Pristina From Foggy Bottom (thepavlovictoday.com)

US Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, shares with The Pavlovic Today the key messages Lajcak will convey to Belgrade and Pristina from Foggy Bottom.

Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant State Secretary, a veteran diplomat whose tenure as the Envoy for the Western Balkans extended beyond the conventional two-year term, bid farewell to the press during a briefing on Wednesday.

Preceding his departure for the next assignment that will soon be announced by the State Department, The Pavlovic Today asked Escobar regarding his discussions with Jim O’Brien concerning the meetings with EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak that are taking place this week in Washington DC.

Escobar revealed the key items on the agenda poised to shape the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina along with the two messages emerging from Foggy Bottom that Lajcak will carry to the region.

“The one thing that he is going to take away from his meetings in Washington is that the United States continues to strongly and fully support the EU-facilitated dialogue. We will be his partner,” noted Gabriel Escobar.

“We will continue to support the path that he has expertly navigated for the two countries,” added Escobar, marking it as “the first important message” Lajcak will convey to Belgrade and Pristina from Foggy Bottom.

The second point on the agenda during Lajcak’s visit to Washington DC, as outlined by Escobar, will be focused on “strategies on how to move the implementation of Ohrid forward so that the region does benefit from this historic agreement.”

The departing envoy for the Western Balkans highlighted that discussions between the US and the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue will center on the Kosovo government’s decision to halt the use of the Serbian dinar. Specifically, Escobar disclosed, “How do we continue to move toward getting a transparent electronic private sector process to allow people who are entitled to benefits from Serbia to receive them in Kosovo.”

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/n6fufsce

Kosovo PM Hits Out At 'Conditions' To Join European Rights Body (barrons.com)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Wednesday slammed a set of alleged conditions for joining Europe's top rights body, including the creation of a semi-autonomous governing structure for ethnic Serbs.

Kosovo has been closing in on membership to the Council of Europe for months despite strong protests from arch-rival Serbia, with a final accession vote set for later this month.

Kosovo's campaign to join the leading rights institution appears to have hit a snag, with Kurti saying that his government is being pressured into creating an association of 10 Serb-majority municipalities. Kurti has long been a fierce opponent of creating such a governing structure, arguing that the association would essentially hand Kosovo's tiny Serb minority autonomy and undercut the government in Pristina.

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yc5w6xcm