UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, April 26, 2023

Kurti: Serbia is saying it will not implement Ohrid Agreement (euronews.al)
Kurti on Association's draft statute: EU didn't let me do it (Klan)
Svecla: Vucic threatened northern Serbs with arrest lists (media)
Ahmeti to Stano: Serbia violated Ohrid agreement, must be punished (RTK)
Krasniqi at State Department, discusses elections in north (Reporteri)
Citaku on elections in north: Sovereignty violated, Kurti is guilty (Klan)
Will Serb rejection of Kosovar passports dissolve now that EU is liberalizing visa regime? (RFE)
EU expects Serbia, Kosovo to implement deal instead of public exchanges (AA)
EU deal on Kosovo 'alive' despite Serbian vote (EU Observer)
Kosovo Power Corporation CEO suspended from duty (media)
Kosovo Assembly extraordinary session today on developments at KEK (media)
Serbia to alter foreign policy after EU Kosovo decision: Vucic (Daily Sabah)

Kurti: Serbia is saying it will not implement Ohrid Agreement (euronews.al)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Tuesday that the Agreement towards the normalization of relations with Serbia should be implemented as soon as possible, but according to him, Belgrade is not ready to implement it.

“The agreement of February 27, which is a proposal of the EU with the initiative of France and Germany, and then the implementing annex that became an integral part of the Ohrid meeting on March 18, must be fully implemented as soon as possible. The text is clear, it requires implementation. It is a pity that the other side has said that it will do partial implementation, which is another way of saying that it will not do implementation,” Kurti told reporters in Pristina on Tuesday.

Kurti on Association's draft statute: EU didn't let me do it (Klan)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Tuesday that he was ready to roll up his sleeves and start drafting the draft statute of the Association of Serb Municipalities himself, but according to him, this was not possible since it was part of the previous negotiations between the parties.

Klan reports that the Association may be discussed at the next meeting between the head of the Kosovar government and the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic on May 2 in Brussels.

However, Kurti denied that there will be a discussion about a reorganising of the elections in the north with the participation of the Serbian List. According to him, ‘this is an internal issue of the Republic.’

Kurti emphasized that it remains for the European Union as mediator to set the agenda of this meeting.

Kurti is scheduled to meet the EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, this weekend at an international conference.

Svecla: Vucic threatened northern Serbs with arrest lists (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Svecla, in an interview with RTK on Tuesday, talked about the situation in the north of Kosovo, including the 23 April elections. "From the moment the results are certified, they are legitimate mayors of municipalities, and they will definitely go to their working places. They will definitely lead with those municipalities, and they will definitely have successes but also failures, as each municipal leadership has throughout Kosovo and I do not know why is this a matter of discussion," he said.

Asked if the Albanian mayors, elected on Sunday, to lead the northern municipalities that are inhabited by a majority of Serbs, will have the assistance of the police to go to their place of work, the minister said that the police have always assisted everywhere that there has been trouble, even in cases with minor problems.

He said that the Kosovo Police is doing its job in the north more than ever and better than ever. "...that's why we have a lack of previous incidents, and we have an increased sense of security there, but we also have results," Svecla added.

He said that now the resistance in the north has gone from civil resistance to criminal resistance. "We are witnessing how our citizens of Serb ethnicity have largely refused to go to the barricades. Earlier there were women, men and children in the barricades, while in the last barricades there were only paid structures. This means that we have gone from civil resistance to criminal resistance," he said.

Svecla also said that “the threat and blackmail of Serbia has gone to such a degree that the president of Serbia had stated that there is a list of Serbs who would be arrested as soon as they cross into Serbia”. According to him, this is difficult for the ordinary citizens, because Vucic considered as traitors those who would go out to vote on Sunday. He said that Serbia made a criminal "victory" on Sunday by interfering in the elections with threats and blackmail.

According to Svecla, there were people near the voting centers on Sunday observing the process and seeing if any Serbs would come out to vote, identify them, and report them to Serbia. According to him, these persons are already known to the law enforcement agencies who will soon appear in front of the justice.

He has also stated that none of the former policemen who took off their police uniforms in the north will be able to return to their workplace.

Svecla said that anyone who is under 30 years old and has no criminal past, can be a part of police competitions, but by no means those who have a criminal past.

Ahmeti to Stano: Serbia violated the Ohrid agreement, it must be punished (RTK)

Kreshnik Ahmeti, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosovo, responded to the EU spokesperson, Peter Stano. Asked about Serbia's vote against Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe, an action that is against the Ohrid agreement, Stano briefly stated that "the EU is aware. Ahmeti wrote in a Twitter post: “By voting against and threatening those who were in favor of yesterday's vote for Kosovo’s membership at CoE, Serbia violated the Basic Agreement. Furthermore, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic declared that Serbia wants partition of BiH. This is not something for the EU to be aware of, but to harshly condemn”.

Krasniqi at State Department, discusses elections in north (Reporteri)

Kosovo’s Minister of Local Government Administration, Elbert Krasniqi, was received at a meeting by the Senior Advisor at the U.S. State Department, Mr. Paul Pfeiffer. Krasniqi said in a Facebook post that the extraordinary local elections held in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, on April 23, were also discussed. “With the advisor Mr. Pfeiffer we discussed local governance, local economic development, results and challenges in local transformation and digitalization. In particular, we discussed the successful conclusion of local elections in the northern part, which were held in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Kosovo, as well as the process of constitution of new municipal bodies. I also thanked them for the support provided on the way to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) as well as for the joint plans for the implementation of the National Action Plan for OGP,” he wrote.

Krasniqi also met Mrs. Janine Garcia, Senior Advisor at the Bureau for Democracy and Human Rights at the U.S. State Department.

Citaku on elections in north: Sovereignty violated, Kurti is guilty (Klan)

Deputy leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Vlora Citaku argued on Tuesday that the April 23 elections in the four northern municipalities have violated the sovereignty of Kosovo. According to her, this happened because the election process was not held in regular facilities but in containers.

"I believe that each of us has seen the situation in the north with concern, and not only on the day of the elections, but since summer of last year. There has never been less sovereignty and presence of Kosovo's institutions, I'm talking about the police, customs, and courts. Everything that was built for years was destroyed in a few days, the holding of the elections was inevitable," Citaku said.

Citaku blames Prime Minister Albin Kurti for the situation in the north. "The situation in the north did not fall from the sky, unlike Prime Minister Kurti, we see each other as united to extend sovereignty and we have not left him alone, we competed with him in these elections. The main culprit is Belgrade, but unfortunately it was helped by the irresponsible and uncoordinated behavior of Prime Minister Kurti last summer," she said.

Will Serb rejection of Kosovar passports dissolve now that EU is liberalizing visa regime? (RFE)

Frustrated by decades of outsider status and bromides about European unity and integration, Kosovo got a morale boost last week when the European Union agreed to liberalize its visa regime for Kosovar passport holders by January 2024.

But not all 2 million of the landlocked former Serbian province's inhabitants are starry-eyed at the news that lawmakers in the European Parliament voted to allow Kosovars to travel to the Schengen zone, which includes 23 EU member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs, concentrated heavily in the north but also elsewhere in Kosovo, don't recognize Kosovar independence or the government in Pristina. They reject its authority on issues ranging from customs to electricity, to IDs.

Such objectors risk exclusion from the Schengen short-stay exemption -- a particularly bitter form of hell in the eyes of many formerly globetrotting ex-Yugoslavs -- if the lure of visa-free travel doesn't outweigh their disdain for Kosovar officialdom.