The government of Kosovo has not yet decided whether it will apply this year for UNESCO membership, the paper reports. Kosovo government’s work plan for this year mentions preparations for EU membership but not for UNESCO. Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said there is still no decision and it is early to speak about the issue. Asked to elaborate, he told the paper: “We have plenty of time. Whether we apply or not is a matter of state confidentiality.”

Kosovo’s Deputy Foreign Minister Valon Murtezaj, director of the Ministry of Culture department for cultural heritage Vjollca Aliu and the director of the non-governmental organisation Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB) Sali Shoshi discussed in a meeting in Pristina the process of Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO.

During a visit to Lisbon, President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic, said he hoped Portugal would change its position regarding Kosovo’s membership bid for UNESCO. “I spoke about this to the Portuguese culture minister and we can expect a change in their position because we see no reason for the Serb cultural heritage to move under Kosovo’s administration and protection,” Nikolic said.

Should Kosovo become a UNESCO member, the consequences for the Serb identity and cultural heritage in the province would be unforeseeable.

This is according to Serbian Ambassador to UNESCO Darko Tanaskovic.

In that case, UNESCO documents would list medieval Serbian monuments, churches and monasteries as cultural assets in the territory of a "state of Kosovo", rather than in Serbia, Tanaskovic has told Jedinstvo.

Whether and how close is Pristina to the UNESCO membership, it could be known in November next year, if they re-submit the proposal to the General Assembly of this organization.

Pristina authorities, after last year's fiasco at the GA UNESCO, have started at the same time a new offensive lobbying for the next General Assembly, which is held every two years. In the meantime Pristina acquired support of some countries and of some has lost. The situation is still uncertain.

A Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs state secretary says he expects the new U.S. administration to have "a different stance" on Kosovo's admission to UNESCO.

"I believe that with the new (U.S.) administration the situation will be different, that there will no longer be such aggressive pressure, as was probably on the agenda of the previous administration," Veljko Odalovic told the Serbian state broadcaster RTS.

The state of Serbian heritage in Kosovo is a matter of cultural identity of the first order, estimates the Minister of Culture and Information Vladan Vukosavljević.

He says to daily Jedinstvo that it is very difficult to ignore the fact that in Kosovo, inter alia, there are more than 1,300 Serbian churches, monasteries and archaeological sites, and it is impossible not to take into account the historical period in which they had arisen.

Deputy Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dušan Kozarev informed the participants of the OSCE Summit "Human dimension" about the problems that face the Serbs in Kosovo and presented numerous examples of endangering the fundamental human and civil rights and freedoms.

Serbian Ambassador to UNESCO and the country's former ambassador to the Vatican Darko Tanaskovic say he does not believe Pope Francis will visit Kosovo.

Tanaskovic also noted that even if that were to happen, "it would not have to mean that the Vatican had recognized, or was going to recognize, Kosovo."

The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija, Marko Đurić, opened an exhibition titled "Kosovo-Metohija - 10 steps" at the Serbian Cultural Centre in Paris Tuesday, noting it best reflected the nature and the value of the Serbian heritage in Kosovo-Metohija.

Addressing a large number of ambassadors to UNESCO in attendance, Đurić said the Serbian cultural heritage had been a target of frequent attacks over the past decades, the March 2004 pogrom being the most horrific episode.