• Kurti welcomes EU’s decision to lift measures imposed on Kosovo (Dukagjini)
• Kurti: Kosovo categorized in Group A of World Bank GTMI (Sinjali)
• Seven people arrested for corruption and abuse of duty (RFE)
• Grenell shares Rama’s post about visit to Thaci (media)
• Visiting Thaci in Hague jail, Albania PM slates “shameful” war court (BIRN)
• North Mitrovica Assembly votes to withdraw from Association of Municipalities (Kossev)
• “Withdrawal of four northern municipalities, sign of Belgrade’s strategy” (Telegrafi)
• Svecla: Fourth Regional Border Directorate opened in Leposavic (media)
• ERO decides not to suspend liberalization of energy market (Kallxo)
• Kosovo assumes presidency of Energy Community Ministerial Council (RTK)
• US KFOR patrols continue to conduct daily patrols across AoR (media)
• EU to slash asylum cases from 7 nations deemed safe (AP)
• Women’s anti-fascist front in Kosovo (Kosovo 2.0)

Kurti welcomes EU’s decision to lift measures imposed on Kosovo (Dukagjini)

Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti welcomed the European Union’s decision to lift the measures imposed on Kosovo. He said in a post on X on Thursday that Kosovo’s government “has consistently maintained that these measures were unfair from the outset, as they sanctioned Kosova for divisions orchestrated by Serbia—an agenda that also led to multiple major terrorist attacks on our territory, including the fatal attack in Banjska and another in Ibër-Lepenc that targeted critical infrastructure”. He also said that “throughout this period, we have remained fully committed to the European Union, to fulfilling the criteria for membership, and to continuing as dedicated allies and champions of democratic values”.

Kurti: Kosovo categorized in Group A of World Bank GTMI (Sinjali)

Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Thursday that Kosovo has been categorized in Group A of the World Bank's GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI), demonstrating a high level of digital maturity. “Today's results demonstrate the significant advances we have made over the past three years, across 48 key indicators, catapulting Kosova from Group C in 2020 and Group B in 2022, to our current Group A status. We look forward to building further on this progress in the coming years,” Kurti said in a post on X.

Seven people arrested for corruption and abuse of duty (RFE)

The Special Prosecution of Kosovo confirmed on Thursday that a police operation in Pristina resulted in the arrest of seven people suspected of corruption, abuse of official duty, giving and receiving bribes, fraud and illegal possession of firearms. The prosecution said that the suspects were caught in flagrance while exchanging money and they were sent to 48-hour detention. Over €20,000 of cash, weapons, jewelry, different documents and electronic devices were seized in the operation. Police said in a statement earlier on Thursday that the operation was carried out in several locations and in cooperation with the Kosovo Intelligence Agency.

Kosovo caretaker Interior Minister, Xhelal Svecla, said in a Facebook post that the arrested persons are senior public officials, including a former government minister, and that the operation was related to the expropriation of private properties. He said that the suspects are believed to have been operated as “an organized criminal group”, that they abused their official positions and caused “considerable damage to the budget” of Kosovo.

Grenell shares Rama’s post about visit to Thaci (media)

US Presidential envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, shared on X a post by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama from his visit to former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in the Hague. Rama referred to the ongoing trial as a theatre of shame of international justice. Grenell said in his post: “NATO ally and Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama eviscerates the Jack Smith legal case against former President Thaci at The Hague - and shames the Europeans for allowing the injustice to continue. Jack Smith is a disgrace. Rama is right”.

Visiting Thaci in Hague jail, Albania PM slates “shameful” war court (BIRN)

After visiting Kosovo’s ex-President, Hashim Thaci, at the detention facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama described the war crimes court as “the theatre of shame of international justice”

Rama, who has often criticised the Hague court, attacked it again on Facebook, claiming that Thaci had been “kidnapped without trial”.

He described the detention of Thaci since November 2020 as a “historic injustice from democratic Europe, with the blessing of European countries and the US, and with the funds of European and American taxpayer”.

Rama drove to the detention centre a day after his participation in a European Union summit with Western Balkans leaders in Brussels. In his Facebook post, he referred to Thaci as “the commander”, referencing his role as a wartime Kosovo Liberation Army official.

“I found the commander on form, calm and smiling like any innocent with an iron character, although with absurd restrictions on minimal rights that have been taken away from him,” Rama said.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/2B3r5

North Mitrovica Assembly votes to withdraw from Association of Municipalities (Kossev)

At the request of the newly elected Mayor of North Mitrovica, Milan Radojevic, the Municipal Assembly voted to withdraw the municipality from the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM) during the first regular session of its new mandate.

The proposal was adopted with 11 votes in favour, while two councillors from the Vetevendosje Movement voted against. There were no abstentions.

The session marked the first meeting of the new Assembly convocation after councillors—mostly from the Serb List—officially assumed their mandates on December 5. All four items on the agenda were adopted, with the final item relating to North Mitrovica’s exit from the AKM.

From accession to withdrawal: a change in leadership, a change in policy

One of the first decisions of the previous municipal leadership, led by Vetëvendosje, was to initiate North Mitrovica’s accession to the Association of Kosovo Municipalities. The request, submitted by then-mayor Erden Atić, was approved at an extraordinary session in August 2023 and later endorsed by the relevant ministry.

At the time, former Assembly Chairperson Nexhat Ugljanin stated that joining the AKM would “protect North Mitrovica from the Association of Serb Municipalities (ASM).”

Out of Kosovo’s 38 municipalities, 34 are members of the AKM. The association has also been cited by acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti as an argument against forming the ASM, repeatedly stating that “Kosovo already has an association of municipalities and does not need another.”

Following the withdrawal of Serbs from Kosovo institutions, the new leadership in all four northern municipalities moved swiftly to join the AKM.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/rNLru

“Withdrawal of four northern municipalities, sign of Belgrade’s strategy” (Telegrafi)

Ridvan Emini, a researcher with the Pristina-based Octopus Institute for Hybrid Warfare Studies, argued in a Facebook post on Thursday that the withdrawal of the four Serb-majority municipalities in the north from the Association of Kosovo Municipalities was not surprising and that “it is an order by Belgrade for Serbian List representatives which aims to restore the structures and gangs as before 2023”. He argued that the northern mayors have made clear their “divisive, refusing and provocative political game, as a strategy of hybrid warfare against Kosovo. The continuous obstructions to the integration of Serb citizens reveal the political tendencies to return Belgrade’s influence in the north”.

Emini also said that the withdrawal from the Association of Kosovo Municipalities confirms the logic of “annulling” decisions made during the governance of 2023-2025 [the governance of Albanian mayors in the four northern municipalities]. “Especially being on the eve of early elections, the ‘withdrawal’ is only a warning about challenges that will require maturity, determination and international coordination,” he said.

Svecla: Fourth Regional Border Directorate opened in Leposavic (media)

Kosovo caretaker Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, announced in a Facebook post on Thursday the opening of the fourth Regional Border Directorate and new premises for officials in Leposavic. He said that the directorate will cover the boundary zone in Decan, Peja, Istog, Zubin Potok, Leposavic, Zvecan, Mitrovica, Vushtrri and Skenderaj. “This development strengthens border security and guarantees more efficient law enforcement in the service of all people,” he said.

ERO decides not to suspend liberalization of energy market (Kallxo)

The Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) has decided not to suspend the liberalization of the energy market in Kosovo. The regulatory body said that a decision by the Supreme Court of Kosovo on market liberalization does not oblige them to suspend the liberalization but only to remove two sub-legal acts. At a board meeting held on Thursday, the ERO said that the court’s decision repeals an article of the Instruction for Energy Market Liberalization dated 2017, and an article of the Instruction for Changing and Amending the document. “The court has explained that the right to universal service belongs only to family consumers and small enterprises, which according to the mandatory definition of the directive are enterprises with less than 50 workers and with a turnover no bigger than €10 million,” acting director of the ERO Legal Department Medin Misini said.

Kosovo assumes presidency of Energy Community Ministerial Council (RTK)

Kosovo has assumed the presidency of the Energy Community Ministerial Council during the 24th meeting of the council in Vienna on Thursday. Kosovo caretaker Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, said this step involves institutional responsibility and an opportunity to advance the reforms agenda within the Energy Community. She said that starting in 2026, Kosovo will lead the political decision-making process at the international forum. “For us a priority will be to push forward the reforms at this important international forum, and also with special care to the energy security and the affordability of prices for Kosovo and other countries of the Community,” Rizvanolli said in an interview with RTK.

US KFOR patrols continue to conduct daily patrols across AoR (media)

Most news websites report that US KFOR troops from the Regional Command-East (RC-E) of the NATO-led KFOR mission continue to conduct daily patrols across the Area of Responsibility (AoR). “Such activities ensure a constant presence on the ground, enhance situational awareness, and contribute to maintaining a safe and secure environment throughout the AoR. Through their impartial and balanced approach, KFOR troops demonstrate the mission’s commitment to stability, professionalism, and respect for all residents of Kosovo,” KFOR said in a Facebook post.

EU to slash asylum cases from 7 nations deemed safe (AP)

The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants’ Day.

An agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council, or the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said that the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.”

Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be “fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement. “The list can be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/2xO4j

Women’s anti-fascist front in Kosovo (Kosovo 2.0)

Between emancipation and propaganda, and under conditions of survival

May 2025 marked 80 years since the end of the Second World War (WWII), but in Kosovo, this anniversary passed by without any special commemoration. In general, WWII does not occupy a significant place in Kosovo’s collective memory, which is reflected by the neglect — and in some instances, even the demolition — of memorials and monuments built during the socialist period that commemorate the war.

One reason for this absence in memory is that public attention is mostly focused on the war of 1998–1999. Additionally, the end of WWII in November 1944 was not experienced by the majority of Kosovo’s Albanian population as true liberation. On the contrary, this moment is frequently viewed as initiating what is often characterized as a renewed occupation by Yugoslav forces. Nevertheless, discussions about WWII are not entirely absent.

Beyond academic circles, the Organization of Veterans of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War of Kosovo (OVLANÇ) organizes yearly gatherings related to the anti-fascist struggle. The activities of this non-governmental organisation receive little media attention, but information about them is available on its Facebook page. OVLANÇ is led by Lekë Hoxha, the son of Fadil Hoxha (1916–2001) — a partisan and key political figure in Kosovo after WWII — and of Vahide Hoxha, an important figure in the Anti-Fascist Women’s Front of Kosovo and later as a teacher at the Prishtina Normal School. This year, OVLANÇ’s event, held in late October in Prishtina, focused on “The Contribution and Emancipation of Women in Kosovo since the Anti-Fascist War of National Liberation.”

Although small events such as this one bring women’s narratives back into focus, they do not change the fact that, within the dominant narratives of Albanian historiography, women’s struggles for national and gender liberation — even when present — are not approached through feminist theoretical frameworks.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/5RgFn