• COVID-19: 1,383 new cases, 26 deaths (media)
• Kosovo receives additional vaccine doses, more expected by week’s end (media)
• Krasniqi to Kurti: COVID-19 situation alarming, requires urgent action (media)
• Borrell: Legally-binding agreement would resolve Kosovo's legal representation (media)
• Assembly Speaker Konjufca meets UN Assistant Secretary Jenca (media)
• Palmer's replacement does not change U.S. approach towards Kosovo (Koha)
• Minister Murati accuses predecessor of inflating cost for road construction (media)
• Playing War: Pitfalls and Potential of Video Games in the Balkans (BIRN)

COVID-19: 1,383 new cases, 26 deaths (media)

Kosovo recorded 1,383 new cases with COVID-19 and 26 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. 996 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 26,886 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Kosovo receives additional vaccine doses, more expected by week’s end (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Health Arben Vitia announced that 53,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have arrived in Kosovo and that an additional 150,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from Germany are expected to reach Kosovo by the end of the week.

Speaking at a news conference, Vitia urged the citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 saying that both types of vaccines used in Kosovo are safe and approved. “We should not choose which vaccine to take in a situation like this but get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

Vitia also commented on his candidacy for Pristina mayor saying that he has not been campaigning at all and that his entire focus is on the management of the pandemic. “We are facing an extremely dangerous variant like Delta. This is the last time I will be speaking about the election race until such time that the prime minister decides to replace me,” he said.

Krasniqi to Kurti: COVID-19 situation alarming, requires urgent action (media)

Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi has written to Prime Minister Albin Kurti saying that the current situation with the pandemic is 'alarming' and is a result of the lack of efficient management and requires urgent response.

"The Democratic Party of Kosovo has been consistent in the position that a united front is necessary to overcome the pandemic and address needs of citizens, and definitely not an internal political battle," he said, adding that the party stands ready to give its contribution at the Assembly of Kosovo which, Krasniqi said, should immediately cut short its summer break and revise the budget law to adequately deal with the pandemic.

Borrell: Legally-binding agreement would resolve Kosovo's legal representation (media)

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said in an answer to the European Parliament on behalf of the European Commission that an agreement on regional representation was reached in the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue facilitated by the EU in 2012 and that as of this time Kosovo participates on its own account and speaks for itself in regional fora, provided it uses the wording Kosovo* followed by the footnote: ‘Kosovo (*).

However, for regional fora where Kosovo’s participation pre-dates the 2012 agreement, a representative of UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is to be invited to meetings organised within the framework of arrangements for which it is a signatory such as the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), Borrell noted.

"The EU was informed of the interest of Kosovo to no longer be represented by UNMIK in regional fora. The EU stands ready to address this issue, including in the Dialogue on normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, while bearing in mind that organisations such as CEFTA have their own structures, procedures and decision-making bodies, which also include other parties. Reaching a comprehensive legally-binding agreement on normalisation of relations therefore provides the best basis for overcoming legal representation issues," he said.

Assembly Speaker Konjufca meets UN Assistant Secretary Jenca (media)

The Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo, Glauk Konjufca, met the UN Assistant Secretary for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Miroslav Jenca, and his associates, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) and Head of UNMIK, Zahir Tanin, Head of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, Mari Yamashita, as well as Akylbai Eluesizov, Political Affairs Officer from DPPA-DPO.

According to a statement issued by the Assembly of Kosovo, the interlocutors underlined the need for closer cooperation as well as for overcoming and resolving issues hindering integration of Kosovo and of the region in EU and NATO institutional mechanisms.

Palmer's replacement does not change U.S. approach towards Kosovo (Koha)

As the replacement of Matthew Palmer, Gabriel Escobar, readies to take on the post of the U.S. Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Koha quotes analysts saying that Palmer's legacy is the improvement of relations between the U.S. and the EU on the issue of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and that no changes are expected to be made to the U.S. policy on Kosovo with Escobar taking the post on September 7.

Dritero Arifi, professor, said Palmer and the EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak managed to achieve cooperation which was not the case under the previous U.S. administration of Donald Trump. He said that Escobar knows the region well and this will be an advantage but that he does not expect changes to the U.S. approach on Kosovo. Emir Abrashi from the "Democracy Plus" think tank said career diplomats, like Palmer and Escobar, are not policy makers but policy enforcers.

Minister Murati accuses predecessor of inflating cost for road construction (media)

Kosovo's Finance Minister Hekuran Murati said that the previous leadership of the ministry, headed by Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), has inflated the cost for the construction of the Pristina-Peje road by 12 million euro.

Murati said at a press conference yesterday that the initial estimates relating to the expropriation of the land for the road construction would reach around 31 million, but that this was raised to 42 million later on. He said the auditing report on the project will be delivered to the prosecution and that accountability will be sought.

Meanwhile, leader of the AAK Ramush Haradinaj reacted saying the auditing report was not professional and that the real reason behind the allegations is "your nervousness and concern about the polls which show you are on the downhill."

Playing War: Pitfalls and Potential of Video Games in the Balkans (BIRN)

The movers and shakers of the video game industry in the Balkans say they are helping to bridge ethnic divides. But what about players in the neon-lit gaming lounges of Belgrade, Pristina and Sarajevo?

K., a Kosovo Albanian video gamer, savours his encounters with Serb players in the online world of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the hit first-person shooter game known to tens of millions of aficionados simply as PUBG.

He likes to upload these multi-player fights to Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, where some have been watched as many as 200,000 times.

The thrill, says K., is in getting ‘virtual’ revenge for the 1998-99 Kosovo war, when Serb forces massacred and expelled Kosovo Albanian civilians in a brutal counter-insurgency campaign that ended only when NATO intervened with 11 weeks of air strikes.

K. was born after the war ended, but so what?

“For us it’s like real war; it’s a chance to redeem our name and intimidate them, show them we are strong,” he told BIRN, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Writing in The Guardian in 2018, the author and journalist Keith Stewart described PUBG as “all rage and death”. The player descends into a large area, locates weapons and tries to kill everyone else, i.e. other people playing the game. The last player – or team – standing is the winner. As of June last year, it had been downloaded 236 million times. It’s particularly popular in Afghanistan.

The Balkans even has its own official PUBG league where players like K. can compete for prizes.

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