• EU calls on Kosovo and Serbia to immediately end inflammatory rhetoric (RFE)
• Power cuts from Monday in Kosovo (media)
• LDK leader predicts most difficult winter ever; slams government (media)
• Newly elect President of Albania to visit Kosovo today (media)
• Swiss TV: Informer that revealed plan to kill Marty was born in Kosovo (media)
• Against bleak global backdrop, Kosovo’s Dokufest ponders ‘How to Survive’ (BIRN)
• Youth Day feels bittersweet to Balkans’ frustrated youngsters (BIRN)
• Palokaj: A major shift of the workforce from Balkans toward EU (Koha)
• “Kosovo must deliver on municipal association if it wants normalisation” (BIRN)
• Kosovo women seek end to ‘period poverty (BIRN)
• COVID-19: 393 new cases (media)

EU calls on Kosovo and Serbia to immediately end inflammatory rhetoric (RFE)

The European Union has called on political leaders in Kosovo and Serbia to immediately end the inflammatory rhetoric and act responsibly. The EU expressed concern about statements mentioning war and conflict and said that it would hold the political leaders responsible for any escalation of the situation in the region. EU spokesman Peter Stano said in a statement: “The recent increase in inflammatory rhetoric by officials of Kosovo and Serbia, in particular the statements about the war and the conflict in the Western Balkans, are of great concern. Senior politicians from both sides will be held responsible for any escalation that could lead to any escalation of tensions and potentially violence in the region. Both sides must immediately end hostilities between them and inflammatory statements, as well as act responsibly”.

The EU also said that all open issues between the two countries should be addressed through the dialogue. “The EU expects the two leaders to discuss these challenging topics at the next high-level dialogue meeting, invited by the High Representative, Josep Borrell,” it was added.

The EU also recalled that reaching a comprehensive and legally binding agreement for the full normalization of relations requires a climate that would contribute to the return of trust, reconciliation, and good relations, “where past agreements are respected and implemented in their entirety, and where actions and statements that are not in accordance with the general interests and strategic goals of the region have no place”.

The EU says that together with EULEX in Kosovo, it is in close coordination with KFOR and international partners, in particular the United States of America.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are scheduled to meet in Brussels on August 19.

Power cuts from Monday in Kosovo (media)

All news websites report that the Kosovo Energy Distribution Services (KEDS) issued a press release on Sunday saying that it had received a directive from the National Dispatch Center of Kosovo, which is part of the electricity system network operator (KOSTT), to start power cuts from Monday at 08:00. The power cuts, according to KEDS, will be up to 2 hours for all consumers. Namely, starting from Monday, consumers will have six hours of energy and 2 hours of power cuts.

LDK leader predicts most difficult winter ever; slams government (media)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lumir Abdixhiku, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the coming winter will be the most difficult that Kosovo has ever experienced, highlighting power cuts and increased energy tariffs. “The power cuts and the high tariffs will hit every family and business in Kosovo without any difference. The new crisis does not originate in Kosovo, but overcoming it depends solely on the policies of the Kosovo government, which despite being warned in time, is continuing to be stubborn and dormant,” he argued.

Abdixhiku suggests that the government must come up with a new fiscal package and prepare subsidies and coordinate with the energy institutions. “None of these measures is discussed in Kosovo today. We are heading toward a catastrophe with a government that has no plan or idea how to overcome the most difficult winter ever,” he added.

Newly elect President of Albania to visit Kosovo today (media)

The newly elect President of Albania, Bajram Begaj, will visit Kosovo today and is scheduled to meet President Vjosa Osmani, Assembly President Glauk Konjufca and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Begaj and Osmani will hold a joint press conference.

Swiss TV: Informer that revealed plan to kill Marty was born in Kosovo (media)

Most news websites cover a report by the Radio Television Suisse which claims to know the identity of the informer that warned the federal police in 2020 about a plan to assassinate former Senator Dick Marty. According to the informer, the assassination was going to be carried out by Serbian professionals, “who for long have executed such missions for Serbian secret services and who are trained by them”. According to RTS, the informer is around 50, was born in Kosovo and had worked for Yugoslav intelligence services in the 1990s before becoming a double agent.

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

Against bleak global backdrop, Kosovo’s Dokufest ponders ‘How to Survive’ (BIRN)

The Kosovo film festival Dokufest has become a lifeline for many in the southern city of Prizren. In 2022, against a backdrop of war, pandemic and climate change, the festival asked questions about survival.

Every day at 5 p.m., Bashkim Cava sets out his roasted corn stall on the bank of the Lumbardhi River in Prizren, southern Kosovo.

He’s not alone; along the river, tired traders offer carved wooden goods, handmade necklaces, tattoos, pancakes, old books, artwork and children’s toys. And this is peak season for them – a two-week window in August when tens of thousands of foreigners and locals alike flock to Prizren for the renowned international film festival, Dokufest.

Sixty-eight-year-old Cava will work until 11 p.m., trying to earn enough money to buy the medicine his wife needs to treat her cancer, while festivalgoers hurry excitedly through the city, tickets and souvenirs in hand.

One cob of Cava’s roasted corn costs a euro. He sells up to 50 a day during Dokufest, but barely 10 on other days.

“It’s very hard dealing with corn right now because of the heat from outside and from here,” he said, pointing to the barbecue he uses. “So hot that you can’t even eat bread, only water, otherwise your lungs will rot. I’m very worried because my wife has cancer and I can’t get enough of the medicines. She’s been operated on five times.”

Cava’s plight speaks to the theme of this year’s Dokufest, which ends on Saturday – ‘How to survive?’

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

Youth Day feels bittersweet to Balkans’ frustrated youngsters (BIRN)

A group of youngsters from across the Balkans told BIRN that hope for a better future often rests on leaving their home countries and escaping poor economies, weak institutions and nationalism.

Economics, politics and inequality are the main concerns for young people in the Balkans, some of them told BIRN in interviews marking International Youth Day on August 12.

“I feel stuck. Being born here means being born with the burden of the past that is also your present. It’s all because cooperation and reconciliation are words long forgotten by our leaders,” said Selena Djuric, 24, a student and human rights activist from Serbia.

She is one of the eight young people from Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece who talked to BIRN on the occasion of International Youth Day, answering: “How does it feel to be young in the Balkans?”

In their interviews, they voiced bittersweet feelings. Worry and rage about the current situation is common, along with a deep lack of trust in politicians and institutions, said Oksana Duqi, 23, from Albania.

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

Palokaj: A major shift of the workforce from Balkans toward EU (Koha)

Brussels-based correspondent Augustin Palokaj writes in an opinion piece that “youth from the countries of the Western Balkans, who cannot get jobs, or are not satisfied with the working conditions, cannot wait for politicians to make their countries according to European standards at once, and this is why they are using the chance to emigrate to the West. This has led to a situation where the lack of the workforce is noticed in all countries of the region, including Croatia, the youngest member state of the European Union. However painful, this is an unstoppable and natural process.”

“Kosovo must deliver on municipal association if it wants normalisation” (BIRN)

Opinion piece by Ian Bancroft, writer and former diplomat. Author of “Dragon’s Teeth: tales from north Kosovo”.

Without movement on the currently moribund Association of Serbian Municipalities, in some shape or form, there can be no normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

The risk of localised and isolated violence, however, cannot be excluded, especially as extended deadlines elapse. A return to the barricades is very much on the cards.

And as the tenth anniversary of the Brussels Agreement approaches, concerns are mounting about whether a deal on the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo can actually be achieved; and if so, when.

The 2013 agreement, or the First Agreement of Principles Governing the Normalisation of Relations, to give its formal title, was lauded at the time for laying out a path for the integration into Kosovo of specific functions previously exercised under the sovereignty of the Republic of Serbia.

In September 2021, barricades were erected in northern Kosovo after the government in Pristina announced various measures related to the seemingly banal topic of vehicle license plates issued by Serbia.

Read full piece at: https://bit.ly/3zYENO3

Kosovo women seek end to ‘period poverty (BIRN)

In a country where women are often unemployed or poorly paid, VAT on period products represents a significant financial burden.

If one woman spends five euros every month on period products and a little more on painkillers, a mother of two daughters faces spending around 20 euros on herself and her children for what is a basic biological need. And if that woman is in Kosovo, there’s a good chance she will have to ask her husband for the money, as the only employed person in the family.

In a country where, according to 2020 figures, only 14 per cent of women are in official employment and the minimum wage for over-35s is 170 euros per month, 20 euros is a significant sum.

Hence a call by women’s rights activists for the government to tax period products the same way it taxes essential goods such as bread – at eight per cent, rather than the current 18 per cent – or scrap the tax altogether.

They say the 18 percent value added tax, VAT, levied on menstrual pads, tampons, cups or underwear is an extra, discriminatory burden on financially-vulnerable women – leading to a phenomenon known as ‘period poverty’. But their calls have so far fallen on deaf ears.

“Considering the low level of employment of women in the formal economy in Kosovo, many women have to ‘beg’ their husbands or fathers – i.e. the traditional head of the household – for money to buy something that is essential,” said Ernera Dushica, a project assistant at the Kosovo Women’s Network, an NGO.

VAT on period products, she said, “is a discriminatory tax because it only affects women.”

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

COVID-19: 393 new cases (media)

393 new cases with COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. There are 5,992 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.