UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, October 30, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

Joint statement by Macron, Scholz and Melon on Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (media)
Lajcak: Leaders showed readiness, although couldn’t agree on modalities (media)
Von der Leyen will visit Kosovo today, to meet Osmani and Kurti (media)
Gervalla: Kosovo-Serbia agreement must be implemented in its entirety (VoA)
Haradinaj: Kosovo needs to implement the French-German plan (media)
Kearns calls on Borrell and von der Leyen to lift sanctions on Kosovo (media)
On sixth day of strike, mineworkers want Kurti to visit them (Koha)
Kosovo Police reacts to SL accusations about Zubin Potok police station (Kallxo)

Serbian Language Media:

Three European leaders call on Belgrade to deliver on de-facto recognition, on Pristina to establish CSM (N1, media)
Vucic: Deadlines about agreement with Pristina nonsense, we are ready for everything but recognition (Radio KIM, media)
EU: Failure to de-escalate tensions will have consequences (N1, BETA)
Scholz: Negotiations with Belgrade, Pristina did not end in failure (media)
Surlic: Meeting of Belgrade and Pristina leaders with EU officials – a successful failure (Tanjug)
Local residents object plan to build police station near elementary school in Zubin Potok (KoSSev, media)
Office for KiM, Serbian List react to decision to build police station near elementary school, say Pristina continues escalation (Radio KIM, media)

International Media:

A mysterious attack in northern Kosovo rattles everyone (The Economist)
Kurti, Vucic Trade Blame as Tensions in North Kosovo Worry EU (BIRN)
Kosovo-Serbia Stalemate Lets Convicted Criminals Walk Free (BIRN)
Op-ed: What of Inter-Ethnic Relations in Post-Banjska Kosovo? (BIRN)

Albanian Language Media

Joint statement by Macron, Scholz and Melon on Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (media)

One of the leading stories in the media over the weekend was the joint statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Below is the full statement:

We welcome the engagement of the two Parties in the discussions yesterday in Brussels. We take good note of the comments made by the two leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to the European Statute for the establishment of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo and their expressed readiness to implement. The draft statute we presented and fully endorse encompasses a modern European way to address the sensitive issue of minority protection in line with best European practices and standards, within the parameters defined by Parties.

We therefore once again underline our expectation for the Parties to deliver on their commitments to implement the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation. The implementation phase should progress with both Parties delivering on their respective obligations in parallel in a step-by-step manner based on the principle that both Parties need to do something to get something. The focus should now be on advancing on the full implementation of the Agreement without preconditions or delays.

In order to make quick progress in the implementation, we call on Kosovo to launch the procedure to establish the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo as prescribed in the draft Statute, and on Serbia to deliver on de-facto recognition. Formalities, including related to adoption, should not stand in the way of progress on this issue.

We now expect Kosovo and Serbia to swiftly agree on the details in the EU-facilitated Dialogue. In the absence of progress on normalisation of relations both Parties risk losing important opportunities.

Lajcak: Leaders showed readiness, although couldn’t agree on modalities (media)

EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that he welcomed the readiness of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to implement the agreement, “although they could not agree on the modalities”. Lajcak’s full post:

“In the margins of this week’s European Council French President Macron, German Chancellor Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Meloni together with the President of the European Council Michel and High Representative Borrell and myself hosted meetings in support of the EU-facilitated Dialogue with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The idea was simple - to follow-up on our discussions last weekend during our joint mission to Pristina and Belgrade and to advance the implementation of the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation. What were planned to be short meetings with the European leaders, turned into long separate negotiations with President Vucic and PM Kurti after the European leaders had to leave for the Council. I welcome that both leaders showed readiness to implement the Agreement, although they could not agree on the modalities. They had comments and questions on the European proposal for a statute establishing the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo, which we presented to them during our joint mission last Saturday. I hope that we will be able to clarify open questions and concerns in the coming weeks. Our statute proposes a modern European way to address the sensitive issue of minority protection in line with best European practices and standards and it does not cross the redlines of the Parties as defined beforehand. But this is not the only element that needs implementation. Serbia also has many pending obligations from the Agreement, and we need to see the implementation progressing in parallel, so that both Kosovo and Serbia get what they agreed to. The focus should now be on advancing the implementation of the Agreement without preconditions or delays. As the three European leaders clearly stated, formalities should not stand in the way of this important process. With this in mind, I will invite the Chief negotiators soon to Brussels to discuss next steps.”

Von der Leyen will visit Kosovo today, to meet Osmani and Kurti (media)

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has started a four-day visit to the Western Balkans. She will stay in Kosovo today, where she is scheduled to meet President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

Gervalla: Kosovo-Serbia agreement must be implemented in its entirety (VoA)

Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla-Schwarz, said in an interview with the Voice of America that Kosovo seen a new draft from the European Union “that respects the concerns we have expressed over the last two years about the substance of the mechanism [self-management for the Kosovo Serbs] and Prime Minister Kurti told the international partners that if they can secure a signature by Serbia of the agreements then Kosovo will not be an obstacle in their implementation”.

Asked to comment on her earlier remarks that the Association [of Serb-majority municipalities] is dead, Gervalla said: “ … that Association which violates the Constitution of Kosovo is dead, for us and for the international community. A new document that we have received, I don’t know whether it will be called an Association or something else, which serves for the implementation of the plan reached in February, respects the concerns and the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo and all other documents that secure the functioning of our state”.

Asked if Kosovo will start implementing the Association, following the joint statement of the leaders of France, German and Italy, Gervalla said that if the agreements reached in Brussels is implemented in its entirety, including Articles 7 and 10, “we are ready to give our contribution”. “Agreements or parts of the agreement, which Belgrade doesn’t even accept, will not bring the desired and necessary normalization between our countries … The agreement needs to be implemented in its entirety, otherwise only some parts will not bring progress,” she argued.

Haradinaj: Kosovo needs to implement the French-German plan (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, said on Sunday that Kosovo must not remain hostage of Serbia’s destructiveness but should continue its perspective toward membership in NATO and the European Union. Haradinaj wrote in a Facebook post that “Kosovo has continuously proved that it supports western and Euro-Atlantic values and is always constructive in its approach to reach a final agreement on mutual recognition with Serbia”.

“Serbia on the other hand has repeatedly sabotaged efforts for a sustainable peace agreement between the two countries by trying to bring back the time of conflict. There is no doubt that it is following the same course even today. In this situation and without having to prove how evil Serbia is, Kosovo needs to follow its Euro-Atlantic course and meet its obligations by implementing without delay the French-German plan,” Haradinaj said.

Kearns calls on Borrell and von der Leyen to lift sanctions on Kosovo (media)

UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chief Alicia Kearns called on EU High Representative Josep Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to lift the sanctions on Kosovo. “Once again Kosovo works with the international community, despite a terror attack orchestrated by Belgrade. Once again Vucic refuses. Remove the sanctions on Kosovo, now Borrell and von der Leyen,” Kearns wrote in a post on X.

On sixth day of strike, mineworkers want Kurti to visit them (Koha)

The news website reports that six days into their strike, the health condition of Trepca mineworkers is deteriorating but they claim they will not end their strike until their conditions are met. The mineworkers said on Sunday that Prime Minister Albin Kurti should visit them and find a solution to overcome the current situation. They called on Kurti to use his authority to secure them better working conditions, dismiss the chief executive officer of the mining complex and guarantee health insurance for the mineworkers.

Kosovo Police reacts to SL accusations about Zubin Potok police station (Kallxo)

The Kosovo Police said in a statement on Friday that it followed all the procedural and legal steps for the construction of a police station in Zubin Potok. Police issued a press release on Saturday highlighting in chronological order all the steps taken in the process since 2018. Police also said that the police officers that will work in the station will serve all communities living in that area and that the police station has no other objectives as speculated by individuals or Serb political parties.

The news website also notes that the Serbian List, the biggest political party of Kosovo Serbs, claimed in a statement that the information about the existence of a decision from 2018 to construct the police station was false.

Serbian Language Media

Three European leaders call on Belgrade to deliver on de-facto recognition, on Pristina to establish CSM (N1, media)

In order to make quick progress in the implementation, we call on Kosovo to launch the procedure to establish the Community/Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities (CSM) in Kosovo as prescribed in the draft Statute, and on Serbia to deliver on de-facto recognition. Formalities, including related to adoption, should not stand in the way of progress on this issue, reads a joint statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as reported by N1.

“We now expect Kosovo and Serbia to swiftly agree on the details in the EU-facilitated Dialogue. In the absence of progress on normalization of relations both Parties risk losing important opportunities”, they warned.

The European officials, who held separate talks on Thursday in Brussels with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, said they welcome the engagement of the two parties in the discussions.

“We take good note of the comments made by the two leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to the European Statute for the establishment of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo and their expressed readiness to implement. The draft statute we presented and fully endorse encompasses a modern European way to address the sensitive issue of minority protection in line with best European practices and standards, within the parameters defined by Parties”, reads the statement.

They underlined their expectation for Kosovo and Serbia to deliver on their commitments to implement the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation.

Vucic: Deadlines about agreement with Pristina nonsense, we are ready for everything but recognition (Radio KIM, media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Belgrade is ready to fulfill the obligations that do not relate to de facto or de jure recognition of Kosovo, its territorial integrity and membership of Pristina in United Nations and its agencies, under obligation that “someone establishes Community of Serbian Municipalities”, Radio KIM reports.

“The entire story is some sort of a magic cycle, with Albanians inventing trick after trick to deceive some from the European Union and the US”, Vucic told Prva TV.

Asked about requests of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels that Serbia sign agreements, Vucic said he wrote the sentence that Belgrade was ready to fulfill its obligations and “put a comma” there, reiterating what Serbia can not accept.

He also termed as nonsense media speculations that Belgrade and Pristina must reach an agreement by February next year, adding that he had been listening about various deadlines longer than ten years.

EU: Failure to de-escalate tensions will have consequences (N1, BETA)

European Union (EU) heads of state and governments said Belgrade and Pristina’s failure to de-escalate the tensions will have consequences, and that Serbia is expected to take all the necessary steps in order to apprehend and swiftly bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack against Kosovo police in the village of Banjska, northern Kosovo.

In the conclusions adopted at the end of the two-day EU summit in Brussels, the 27 EU leaders said they are “deeply concerned” about the security situation in the north of Kosovo and that they “strongly condemn” the violent attack against the Kosovo police on 24 September 2023 in Banjska in which a Kosovo police officer and three members of an armed Serb group were killed.

The Council also said that Kosovo and Serbia “must pursue sustained de-escalation efforts, as well as ensure the holding of new elections in the north of Kosovo as soon as possible, with the active participation of Kosovo Serbs”.

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2s49kw6e

Scholz: Negotiations with Belgrade, Pristina did not end in failure (media)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said following the European Union (EU) summit that he had the impression that the negotiations with Belgrade and Pristina held Thursday in Brussels did not end in failure, because both sides expressed commitment to implement agreements.

Scholz told a media conference that both Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the existing agreements will be implemented, reported Kosovo Online.

“In this truly grim situation we were able to make progress. I do not share your assessment that the negotiations failed”, said Scholz commenting on a reporter’s remark that the negotiations failed.

“We now have Kurti’s and Vucic’s statements that they will implement the measures from the documents that we produced – the Basic agreement, the Ohrid agreement and now the concept for a concrete draft for the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities. This was clearly said and it is the right step”, he added.

Surlic: Meeting of Belgrade and Pristina leaders with EU officials – successful failure (Tanjug)

Meeting of Belgrade and Pristina leaders with European officials on the margins of the European Council summit in Brussels could be described as “successful failure”, assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, Stefan Surlic said, adding it was positive that the Community of Serb Municipalities was confirmed as priority in the further process of implementation of the reached agreements, and the event in Banjska minimized in the context of consequences.

The meeting could be more described as unsuccessful he opined, saying it has been clear that Pristina does not have intention to initiate institutional process of CSM establishment, because the CSM over and over again is offered as some sort of satisfaction for Belgrade and Serbs in Kosovo which has not been implemented, and because for the first time a term “recognition” was seen in the official statement of the German Chancellor, French President and Italian Prime Minister sent earlier.

Local residents object plan to build police station near elementary school in Zubin Potok (KoSSev, media)

Heavy machinery began preparing the ground near the only Elementary School Jovan Cvijic in Zubin Potok on Saturday morning for the construction of a police station. Some local residents protested the works, announcing a larger protest. Kosovo police confirmed that a police station is being built at this location, claiming it was a decision from 2018 and that they have now received approval to start the works. Local residents also warned of the absence of a public discussion on the issue, KoSSev portal reports.

Police station was located in the dilapidated premises of a private house in previous years. Residents that KoSSev portal spoke with believe that the chosen site is inappropriate and that another space for the construction of this facility needs to be found.

They told KoSSev that the land on which the police station will be built belongs to NIS (Oil Industry of Serbia).

Milentije Jaksic, a resident of Zubin Potok, and one of the activists of the Civic Initiative For Zubin Potok conveyed his concern and displeasure over the fact that the building is being built ten meters from the elementary school to the police that morning. Jaksic said that a policeman told him that they would actually install police containers there.

“I immediately offered them part of my land if they were going to put containers because the police station has no place next to the school in this situation“, Jaksic told KoSSev.

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/7mzpmh9k

Office for KiM, Serbian List react to decision to build police station near elementary school, say Pristina continues escalation (Radio KIM, media)

Reacting to the decision to start construction of Kosovo police station near elementary school in Zubin Potok, Office for Kosovo and Metohija said that Pristina authorities lead by Albin Kurti, continue with escalatory and unilateral actions in the north of Kosovo, Radio KIM reports. The Office also said the construction takes place on land that used to belong to the Elementary School Jovan Cvijic in Zubin Potok.

“Parents of children attending this school, but also other residents of Zubin Potok, are revolted and concerned over the fact that (Albin) Kurti’s police will be in the vicinity of their children”, the Office said, adding that after illegally built special police bases in the north of Kosovo, construction of a police station near the elementary school is a new blow to the peace and an attempt of intimidation of the Serb community in the north.

Serbian List in a statement said this decision caused anxiety among residents of Zubin Potok, amid numerous examples of repression and beatings of residents there by Kosovo police. Serbian List also said this decision aims at creating additional tensions and escalation of the situation in the north, adding that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti ignores calls from the international community to de-escalate the situation on the ground.

In reference to Kosovo police claims that decision was made in 2018 to build a police station there, Serbian List said “that (Albin) Kurti’s regime presents fake information about some decision from 2018 about construction of a police station there, because such decision has never been delivered to local self-administration, nor consent was requested from the-then municipal leadership nor applicable permissions for reconstruction of such premises”.

The Serbian List also demanded an urgent reaction of international missions in Kosovo.

“We demand reactions from both EULEX and KFOR because they are responsible for the safety of all citizens, and that we also believe and are aware that this act is not a step in the right direction of de-escalating the situation”, reads the staetment.

International Media

A mysterious attack in northern Kosovo rattles everyone (The Economist)

Serbia’s president, its intelligence services and its armed forces were all involved in a plot to seize control of the north of Kosovo last month. At least, so says Xhelal Svecla, Kosovo’s minister of the interior. A Serbian paramilitary group was discovered by a passing police patrol, three Serbs died in a shoot-out, a Kosovo Albanian policeman was killed by a remote-controlled mine, and a huge cache of weapons was left behind by the group as it fled. Mr Svecla says this was all part of a plan by the Serbian authorities to seize control of Kosovo’s north with a proxy force, in emulation of Russia’s grab of parts of Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014.

Serbia denies involvement and blames Kosovo for provoking local Serbs. However, it is true that in the past Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, has said he would like a deal whereby Kosovo’s overwhelmingly Serb-inhabited north reverts to his country’s control (Kosovo was a province of Serbia until in 2008 it declared independence, which Serbia refuses to recognise). In 2018 Mr Vucic said that “All Serbs know they lost Kosovo, but I will try everything in my might to retrieve what I can, so in the end it is not a total defeat or total loss.”