• Berlin Summit begins today, three agreements expected to be signed (Koha)
• Agreement to remain silent about the plan, source says (RTK)
• Kosovo Police in the north refuses to issue reprimand letters (RFE)
• Svecla: Members of Serbian BIA and Russian GRU in the north (media)
• Serbia says drones enter its airspace from Kosovo amid rise in tensions (Reuters)
• LDK leader calls on government to cooperate closely with U.S. and allies (Klan)
• Franz welcomes decision for official use of Roma language in Prizren (media)
• Courts ignore aggravating circumstances when journalists are attacked (BIRN)
• “Withdrawing funds from Pension Trust would further fuel inflation” (RFE)
• Political leaders condemn mistreatment of elderly woman in a care home (media)
• Albania PM accuses media of ‘Blackmail’ with negative coverage (BIRN)

Berlin Summit begins today, three agreements expected to be signed (Koha)

The Berlin Summit for the Western Balkans will start today, and three agreements are expected to be signed there. Kosovo will be represented by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, while Ana Brnabic will head the Serbian delegation. The event will start at 09:15 with a speech by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will also attend the summit.

Representatives of the Kosovo government said that the six countries of the Western Balkans have agreed to sign agreements on the mutual recognition of ID cards, university diplomas and professional qualifications.

Koha Ditore reports on this front page this morning that Chancellor Scholz has revived the Berlin Process and that concrete results are expected at the summit today. It also notes that “European diplomats give priority to the Berlin Process compared to the Open Balkan which is not an all-inclusive initiative”.

In a different article related to the summit, the daily notes that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is expected to express to Chancellor Scholz the position of Kosovo about the French-German plan for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

Agreement to remain silent about the plan, source says (RTK)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, have agreed not to discuss in public the German-French plan about the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. A source close to the German government told RTK that “we have agreed with our interlocutors, Prime Minister Kurti and President Vucic, to remain silent”. The source said that the European capitals want to stick to the agreement and that the intended direction is no longer a secret.

“We presented our ideas, and we are cautiously optimistic. I think there is still a lot of work to be done. Our impression is that both Pristina and Belgrade have understood the benefits of our proposal,” the source added.

The source also said that Berlin has no illusions about the challenges that lay ahead. “I think the situation is extremely serious and this now is a moment of truth for everyone”.

Kosovo Police in the north refuses to issue reprimand letters (RFE)

Director of Kosovo Police for the north region, Nenad Djuric, said on Wednesday that police officers in the north of Kosovo will not implement the government’s decision to issue reprimand letters to drivers of vehicles with licence plates issued by Serbian authorities.

“We cannot implement that decision because it is a political decision and aimed mainly against the Serb community and we are members of this community … traffic control units from Pristina were sent to the north to exert pressure on us,” Djuric said.

Djuric made these remarks following a meeting with representatives of the Serbian List and the mayors of the four Serb-majority municipalities in the north.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Interior Affairs has not yet commented how it will act after the decision of the police in the north.

Serbian List deputy leader Igor Simic said all representatives of this party fully support “the police officers of the regional directorate in the north”. “Serbs don’t want to replace their KM licence plates with RKS plates,” he said. “Whenever the first fine is issued it will be met with a harsh reaction and a strong resistance with all democratic means. We cannot predict what will happen later.”

Mitrovica North Mayor Milan Radojevic thanked the commanders of the police stations in the north and said they “fully understand the police officers for refusing to issue reprimand letters”. “We had a meeting where we reached certain conclusions which will show the unity of our people in these areas,” he added.

Svecla: Members of Serbian BIA and Russian GRU in the north (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, said in an interview with Top News on Wednesday that there are currently members of the Serbian BIA and the Russian GRU in the north of Kosovo and that they are organising extremist groups. “Yes it is true. We have information that elements of the Serbian BIA are organising these extremist groups and that the GRU is there too. We already have Russian nationals suspected of espionage, we also had evidence and we expelled them from Kosovo,” he said.

According to Svecla, Serbia is using these cases to undermine Kosovo’s sovereignty. “Serbia is mobilising, financing and organising different groups of extremists which are at the same time criminal groups because they benefit from smuggling,” he said.

On the new decision for Serbian licence plates, Svecla said the Kosovo government has not backed down but that it has modified its initial approach to the issue. “There was no readiness from the Serbian side to reach a solution and then we made a legal and legitimate decision and there is nothing to discuss there,” he argued.

Serbia says drones enter its airspace from Kosovo amid rise in tensions (Reuters)

Several drones have entered Serbian airspace from Kosovo over the past three days, Serbia's defence minister said on Wednesday amid heightened tensions between Belgrade and its ex-province, which won independence after a guerrilla uprising.

Kosovo's government denied the accusation, saying any such drones were not coming from its territory.

Tensions have resurged between Kosovo and Serbia over Pristina's efforts to make its Serb minority switch their old car licence plates, which date to the 1990s when Kosovo was a part of Serbia, to Kosovo state plates.

"I cannot tell you who those drones belong to, but I can say that they all flew from Kosovo territory," Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic told RTS TV. He gave no details about the reported drones.

He said President Aleksandar Vucic, who also serves as supreme commander of Serbia's armed forces, had issued an order to "eliminate" any drones entering Serbian airspace and had put Serbian forces on "higher alert".

On Wednesday afternoon one drone was shot down in the city of Raska, 250 kilometres southwest from Belgrade, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

LDK leader calls on government to cooperate closely with U.S. and allies (Klan)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lumir Abdixhiku, said on Wednesday that the Kosovo government must coordinate closely with the United States and the European Union. During a meeting with party structures in Lipjan, he said that he is concerned with what he called deteriorating relations with Western allies.

“Kosovo doesn’t have to choose between lawfulness and its closest international allies. Kosovo can have both the lawfulness and its international allies. A government that brings the country before such a choice has failed in the very start,” Abdixhiku argued. “The honest requests of the Biden administration and our European allies must be taken seriously and not with arrogance.”

Franz welcomes decision for official use of Roma language in Prizren (media)

Head of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Kosovo, Romeo Franz, welcomed on Wednesday the decision of the Prizren municipal assembly for the official use of the Roma language in Prizren. “This is proof that Prizren is truly a city that moves forward, and I hope that Prizren will be a beacon of light for all of Kosovo. I am very proud with Prizren and I am very happy to be here,” Franz said.

Courts ignore aggravating circumstances when journalists are attacked (BIRN)

By ignoring aggravating circumstances, courts have drastically reduced the sentences issued against those who have attacked and threatened journalists.

Kosovo courts have ignored public requests that attacks on and physical threats to journalists be considered as aggravating circumstances and the perpetrators punished with maximum penalties.

BIRN has analysed court judgments in cases of threats and attacks against journalists in recent years and has discovered that the courts have ignored aggravating circumstances, drastically reducing the sentences against those who have attacked and threatened journalists.

In five analysed cases, the court only considered four circumstances as aggravating while 12 were taken as mitigating.

From 2016 until today, five criminal cases in which the victims were journalists have been judged in the first instance in the courts of Kosovo.

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

“Withdrawing funds from Pension Trust would further fuel inflation” (RFE)

The World Bank’s Lead Country Economist for the Western Balkans, Richard Record, said in an interview with the news website that he is against the withdrawal of funds from the Kosovo Pensions Savings Fund because in his opinion this would further fuel inflation which now stands over 12 percent.

“The proposed measure to allow for a second round of considerable withdrawals from the Kosovo Pensions Savings Trust would be regressive, it would threaten the long-term sustainability of the pension system and would further fuel inflation,” he said.

“Measures in response to the inflation must be targeted with a limited timeline”.

For several months, the opposition has been saying that citizens should be allowed to withdraw up to 30 percent of their funds from the pension fund to easier cope with the increased inflation.

Political leaders condemn mistreatment of elderly woman in a care home (media)

Most political leaders in Kosovo reacted on Wednesday after a video was published in social media showing an elderly woman being slapped by a nurse in a care home in Peja. Prime Minister Kurti said in a Facebook post: “What we saw today is horrible. There is no citizen that was not shocked, whereas upon learning about the incident … institutions have acted. The elderly are our most loved ones … We will stand beside them both with government decisions and responsibility and also with civic compassion and care”.

Albania PM accuses media of ‘Blackmail’ with negative coverage (BIRN)

A war of words between Albania PM Edi Rama and Top Channel, the country second-largest TV station in terms of revenues, has shed light on how the government and the media operates in the country – an issue referred to regularly in European Commission Progress Reports.

These have underlined repeatedly that Albania’s government should enhance transparency about the advertisement contracts it has with various media.

Over the weekend, Rama targeted Top Channel in a series of Tweets, claiming it was “blackening reality” while “seeking illegal favours”.

On Wednesday, he published a proposal by the TV channel for the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development, AZHBR, in which it offered to produce some 50 feature reportages to promote the agency’s work for some 12 million leks (100,000 euros).

“Here it is an example of how media blackmail works,” Rama commented. “They demand 120 million leks from AZHBR to show to Albanians how well the countryside is faring,” he added, contrasting that with several news chronicles published lately by the channel that showed the plight of the countryside and the sufferings of cash-strapped farmers.

“If they don’t get it, they change their tune,” Rama wrote.

Top Channel criticized Rama’s attacks and claimed that they came “after the airing of the news chronicle that worried the public.” The channel acknowledged that it had sent a proposal to AZHBR but claimed that it has done such collaborations many times with public bodies.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3hbu1hq