• EU High Representative statement on situation in north of Kosovo (media)
• Ethnic Serbs dig in for long protest over Kosovo ban (AFP)
• Kosovo Police refute report by Kosovo Online (media)
• Moscow: Kosovo police actions against Serbs, provocation (media)
• Presevo Valley Albanians to be compensated for license plates payment (media)
• Presevo Mayor supports Kosovo Government's decision on license plates (media)
• Prime Minister Kurti meets Albanian Assembly Speaker Nikolla (media)
• Opinion: Is lawfulness always good? By Arben Idrizi (Gazeta Express)
• COVID-19: 5 deaths, 160 new cases (media)
• Ministry of Health launches electronic COVID-19 vaccination certificate (media)
• “New decision on start of school year to be made before September 26” (Kallxo)
• President Osmani meets President of Guinea Bissau Embaló (media)

EU High Representative statement on situation in north of Kosovo (media)

The European Union High Representative Josep Borrell issued the following statement on the situation in north of Kosovo:

The European Union calls for an immediate de-escalation in the north of Kosovo. Any provocations or unilateral actions must be avoided as they would go directly against the interest of the people of the region.

We urge the leadership in Belgrade and Pristina to take a responsible approach and to work through the EU facilitated Dialogue to avoid any further escalation, restore a peaceful atmosphere and to work on viable solutions. It is in the interests of all to look for a way forward that enables freedom of movement and which improves people’s daily lives.

The EU-facilitated Dialogue is the only platform to address and resolve all open issues, and we strongly urge both parties to make full use of it.

We stress once again that all agreements reached in the process of the EU-facilitated Dialogue since its inception in 2011 remain valid and binding for both Parties. Past agreements form an important element for comprehensive normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. The EU and its Member States urge Kosovo and Serbia to fully respect and implement all their Dialogue obligations with no further delay.

Ethnic Serbs dig in for long protest over Kosovo ban (AFP)

Ethnic Serbs dug in Wednesday for a long protest over the Kosovo government's decision to ban vehicles with Serbian plates as they formed a tent camp on the border with Serbia.

They started blocking border traffic after the ethnic Albanian-led government decided on Monday to oblige drivers with Serbian registration plates to put on temporary ones when entering Kosovo.

A few hundred ethnic Serbs were camping in tents by trucks parked in the middle of the roads leading to the border.

"We are not leaving here," said one 43-year old protester who identified himself only as Dejan.

"Let (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti allow our Serbian plates and then we can talk," he added.

The government in Pristina justified the ban over Serbia's refusal to allow cars with Republic of Kosovo plates to enter the country.

Belgrade's position is that they imply its status as an independent nation, which is bitterly disputed by Serbia.

"This isn't a provocation, nor is it discriminatory," Kurti wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. It was just a reciprocal measure, he said.

Unlike the 40,000 Serbs who live in the tense north of Kosovo, some members of the Serb population in Kosovo seem to have started to accept the new regulation.

According to the interior ministry, some 1,500 temporary licences were issued in the 24 hours after the ban was introduced.

Read full article at: https://bit.ly/3zA9erE

Kosovo Police refute report by Kosovo Online (media)

Kosovo Police issued a statement on Wednesday refuting a report by Kosovo Online according to which KP officers in Bernjak tried to get a person out of his car and that KFOR prevented the incident. Kosovo Police says in the statement that the article is misinformation and an attempt to create insecurity among the people.

Moscow: Kosovo police actions against Serbs, provocation (media)

Moscow regards the latest actions by Kosovo's police in the north of the territory as a provocation aimed at forcing Serbs out of the region, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in the wake of growing tensions in Kosovo.

"We find very worrisome the worsening situation in the northern areas of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Kosovo. Since September 20 Pristina's police, with the international missions connivance, have been creating hindrances to traffic across the administrative borer with the central part of Serbia on far-fetched pretexts and using force against civilians. In fact, this is an attempt by local Albanians to seize the Serbian enclaves of the province and put them under control. We regard these actions as provocations, further ethnic cleansing and attempts to force Serbs out of Kosovo," the statement runs.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Kosovo's Albanian authorities "must immediately pull out their police forces from the northern areas of the province, put an end to sabotage and address settlement tasks in earnest."

"The fanning of tensions is fraught with major problems capable of undermining stability in the Balkans. We expect that Pristina's US and European patrons will exert sobering influence on their minions at last, thus avoiding a destructive scenario fraught with a threat to the whole region," the Foreign Ministry said.

The statement also notes that the UN-mandated Kosovo Force (KFOR) and also the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo "once again are unable or reluctant to perform their function of maintaining peace and security in the territory."

"The latest surge of tensions was predictable, if one bears in mind the stagnation of the Kosovo settlement process. The European Union, which the UN General Assembly appointed to broker the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, has been taking no tangible moves to achieve shifts for the better, while the Kosovars' leaders blatantly refuse to comply with their obligations, including the key one regarding creation of a Community of Serb Municipalities," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Presevo Valley Albanians to be compensated for payment of license plates (media)

Ilir Kerceli, chief of staff to Kosovo Assembly Speaker Glauk Konjufca, said that Albanian residents from the Presevo Valley who pay for temporary license plates, will be compensated.

"All the money collected from the payment of license plates by Albanian families from the Presevo Valley, will be returned in the form of donation for the Valley," Kerceli said.

Telegrafi writes that Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said they are looking into options to compensate the residents of the Presevo Valley for paying temporary license plates when entering Kosovo. "We are aware that many citizens of the Valley will have to pay and we are sorry for this, we are considering an option of what state mechanism we could find to compensate no matter how little for the expenses incurred," Kurti is quoted as saying yesterday at a press conference.

Presevo Mayor supports Kosovo Government's decision on license plates (media)

Ardita Sinani, Mayor of Presevo, came out in support of the Kosovo Government's decision on license plates.

"We welcome any decision that sovereignizes Kosovo, such as reciprocity measures regarding the use of temporary license plates of citizens of Serbia. In this case with decisions that will facilitate the movement of citizens of the Presevo Valley in Kosovo," she tweeted.

Prime Minister Kurti meets Albanian Assembly Speaker Nikolla (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, met yesterday the Speaker of the Assembly of Albania, Lindita Nikolla, with whom they talked about the current situation and inter-institutional cooperation.

On the issue of tensions in the north of Kosovo following the decision to issue temporary license plates for vehicles from Serbia entering Kosovo, Kurti said that is does not constitute a provocation nor does it discriminate against anyone. "There have been no incidents at any border crossing, while the Kosovo Police has been and is professional, correct and efficient, said the Prime Minister, adding that special units are there only to protect the border police and border crossings," he is quoted as saying in a press release issued by the PM's Office.

Kurti also said that he is in continuous contact with EU and QUINT officials and that Kosovo is ready for dialogue, but Serbia is refusing.

Opinion: Is lawfulness always good? By Arben Idrizi (Gazeta Express)

Columnist Arben Idrizi writes in an opinion piece that the best possible lawfulness today is to do everything to convince the Serb citizens to love our shared country.

Some time ago – not even a year ago – Kurti spoke and was against the dialogue with Serbia. Not as a principle, but he ruled it out as an immediate need. This could be seen both as arrogance and political immaturity. While for his voters, it could be seen as strength, pride and statehood. But this is not the issue. When he [Kurti] was against the dialogue, he used a justification that could not leave one indifferent: “we will first meet and talk with the Kosovo Serbs”, “we will hold dialogue with the Kosovo Serbs”, and so on.

Of course this would be a great good thing. But it would be a miracle for a politician in the Balkans to sit at the table with residents of a minority community and talk with them, the same way he talks with members of his own ethnic community, by understanding their position.

Being that miracles happen only in our desperate fantasies, the meetings and the talks out did not happen either. Not only because Kurti did not and does not want this, but in reality even our fellow Serb compatriots, caught in the trap of being nowhere, between Prishtina and Belgrade, did not want this either.

Can they be blamed easily and fully for this?

I don’t think so. It could be that they hate our and theirs state today, but at the end of the day, this is neither greater nor smaller than the hate that we had for their and our state yesterday.

If we want (and we must) remove their hate and convince them to love our country, which is theirs as much as it is ours, we must show more patience than they are showing to us for the time being. Because that is maturity. And in this case, that is diplomacy. Or, in other words, we must try to do a good thing for our fellow compatriots that Serbia is not doing: to convince them that this is our shared country.

The misfortune here is that both Serbia and Kosovo are using the Kosovo Serbs as trenches in their miserable battlefield of cries, hatred, lack of patience and humiliation. Both Serbia and Kosovo speak on their behalf and for their good, but both do nothing else than work against them.

As Kosovo finds itself in an unfavorable position, it needs to double its efforts: to overcome the provocative and torturing Serbian diplomacy and at the same time prove to Serb citizens that this is their country.

But what does to a Kosovo Serb mean the unannounced issuing of license plates and the deployment of special police units in their area to implement this decision?

Is this the communication with the Kosovo Serbs as a counter-response to the unnecessary dialogue?

Is this the way we are going to communicate with our fellow citizens, with special units, by ignoring them, and by issuing unannounced decisions?

As a result, a fundamental question arises: is every lawfulness good for every moment?

It doesn’t seem to be the case now. This lawfulness has served nothing but to show illusionary muscles to a force which used to show us real muscles in the past and then paid a dear price for doing that.

Lawfulness in this case, in my opinion, is to stubbornly do everything that is possible to convince the Serb citizens to love our shared country.

COVID-19: 5 deaths, 160 new cases (media)

Five deaths from COVID-19 and 160 new cases with the virus were recorded in Kosovo in the last 24 hours. 1,039 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 7,010 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Ministry of Health launches electronic COVID-19 vaccination certificate (media)

Kosovo's Ministry of Health announced that as of 22 September, all persons vaccinated against COVID-19 in Kosovo will be able to download an electronic copy of the certificate.

The Ministry called on the citizens not to make expenses in getting digital cards from unauthorised operators and individuals warning that such documents are not valid and furthermore constitute a misuse of people's personal data.

“New decision on start of school year to be made before September 26” (Kallxo)

Healthcare professionals are recommending to the institutions that the new school year should not start on September 26, the news website reported on Wednesday. Minister of Health, Arben Vitia, said the latest recommendations suggest that the new school should not start yet given that the new variants of COVID-19 are affecting children at large. The Ministry of Education confirmed the information. “On the opening of schools and the start of the new school year, based on the recommendations of healthcare professionals, a decision will certainly be made before September 26 and you will be informed in time,” the Ministry said in a response to the news website.

President Osmani meets President of Guinea Bissau Embaló (media)

The President of the Republic of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, during her stay in New York met with the President of Guinea Bissau Mr. Umaro Sissoco Embaló, a press release issued by Osmani’s office notes. The Republic of Kosovo and Guinea-Bissau have established diplomatic relations in 2018 and they are considered to be excellent with the possibility of their further intensification.

President Osmani has sought the support of her counterpart Embaló in lobbying of African countries to further increase the number of recognitions. The President has also asked for support regarding Kosovo's efforts for gaining membership in international organizations, to which President Embaló responded positively.

While presenting the current situation in Kosovo, President Osmani stressed that the country's goal remains its membership in Euro-Atlantic structures. in relation to the dialogue with Serbia, Madam President stated that Kosovo is pro dialogue, which should conclude with mutual recognition.

Both sides added that there is potential for cooperation between the two countries, with the aim to further exploring of the opportunities for economic cooperation and for exchanges in areas of mutual interest.