• Basha: Five deputy speakers will be voted in a package, then the govt will be voted (RFE)
• Konjufca: I’ll be in the Hague on the last day; no one can divide our liberation war (media)
• Hague prosecution insists KLA leaders on trial ‘directly supported’ crimes (BIRN)
• Kosovo was hit by 4.8 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday night, no injuries reported (media)
• Bislimi: Law on foreigners will not be used as pressure against Serbs (media)
• OSCE: We’re closely monitoring developments related to law on foreigners (Kosovo Online)
• Maqedonci meets Hargreaves, discuss cooperation in defense (RTK)
• NATO is monitoring concerning trends in the Western Balkans, official says (media)
• Sources: Police arrest two Byelorussians, a Russian and an Albanian national (TeVe1)
• Serbia-run faculty in Kosovo faces 30-day eviction order (Kosovo Online/N1)
• Corruption Perceptions Index 2025: Serbia scores worst in the past two decades (N1)

Basha: Five deputy speakers will be voted in a package, then the govt will be voted (RFE)

Speaker of the previous legislature, Dimal Basha, from the Vetevendosje Movement, told reporters on Tuesday that there has been consensus among the leaders of 14 political parties to vote on the five deputy speakers of the Kosovo Assembly in a package. Basha said that there was consensus on other points of the constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly, including the election of the speaker, and that once the new assembly is constituted, MPs will vote on the new government of Kosovo. He also said that the vote for deputy speakers in a package was proposed by leaders of non-Serb non-majority parties.

Basha said that the constitutive session, initially scheduled to start at 12:00 hours today, will begin at 17:00, because of the closing statements in the trial of former KLA leaders in the Hague.

Konjufca: I’ll be in the Hague on the last day; no one can divide our liberation war (media)

Deputy leader of the Vetevendosje Movement, Glauk Konjufca, said on Tuesday that he will in the Hague for the last day of the trial against the former KLA leaders. He said he has already filed a request and that he will represent Kosovo there. “I expect this process and accusations will fail. They are fabrications that insult the very core of our liberation war, and I believe they will be found innocent,” he said.

Konjufca also said that no one can change the historical truth and that there is broad political and social consensus in Kosovo about the fight of the KLA. He said that the former KLA leaders did not commit any crimes. “They were at the helm of a liberation army which gave its martyrs, and we as a people lost over 12,000 persons, including children and pregnant women. This is the truth of our history. Whoever tries to change that truth will lose,” he said.

Hague prosecution insists KLA leaders on trial ‘directly supported’ crimes (BIRN)

During closing statements at trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, prosecutors insisted the defendants had command responsibility for crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA fighters.

The prosecutors also insisted that the defendants often witnessed or participated in mistreatment of detainees.

Prosecutor Matt Halling told the court on Tuesday that Thaci did not only make “political or neutral” contributions to the KLA’s war, as the defence has argued.

“Thaci was a direct supporter of the purpose of the JCE [joint criminal enterprise]. You can see this better in the way he talks about the [Democratic League of Kosovo] LDK” – one of the groups targeted as opponents of the KLA.

Halling claimed that “it is not a neutral contribution to interrogate, threaten and beat people”.

According to the indictment, the defendants were members of a joint criminal enterprise that “conducted a campaign of persecution against opponents” between at least March 1998 and September 1999.

Read more at: https://2cm.es/1jyX4

Kosovo was hit by 4.8 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday night, no injuries reported (media)

All news websites reported on Tuesday night that Kosovo was hit by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday night. The epicenter of the earthquake was 23 kilometers east of Prizren and in the region of the municipality of Shterpce. Several media quoted a Kosovo seismologist as saying that the earthquake had the potential to endanger the lives of people and cause material damage because of its force.

Bislimi: Law on foreigners will not be used as pressure against Serbs (media)

Kosovo’s caretaker Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, in an interview with RTK2, rejected allegations that the Law on Foreigners could be used as a mechanism of institutional pressure against Serbs in Kosovo. Asked about concerns expressed by the Kosovo Serbs, Bislimi said that “the law enables rights and it does not limit them. No one should be afraid of the law; a person that gets a status according to the law will have institutional protection. The law is not selective and it will not target a single national group”.

Bislimi also talked about the integration of healthcare and education institutions that operate according to Serbia’s system, saying that the problem is not about the enforcement of law but that institutions need to be “legalized and legitimized”. “These institutions need to be integrated into the Kosovo legal framework. Mayors of municipalities have an important role in the process. They have great competencies in education and healthcare and have budgets foreseen to finance these categories. Mayors of Serb-majority municipalities have greater competencies compared to mayors of other municipalities. Serbia too can provide financial assistance to Serb-majority municipalities,” he said.

Bislimi said that there is an initiative to integrate healthcare and education. “Before us are five to six very important weeks and we need to be very constructive. Caretaker Minister of Local Government, Elbert Krasniqi, has sent an invitation to all mayors of Serb-majority municipalities for a meeting on Friday (February 13) at 10:00. What can we do together in order to move the process forward? The invitation was sent last week, so far we have only one confirmation. It would be good for the mayors to be as responsible in this phase because the wellbeing of their citizens will depend mainly on the approach that they will follow in the coming weeks,” he said.

Bislimi also said that there are ongoing negotiations with international donors to conclude a study on the needs of the entire healthcare system in Kosovo, with the aim of improving healthcare services for the people. “The hospital in Mitrovica North is not in a good state. It is not good for a patient to have to go to a hospital in Serbia over a small intervention only because of free services. There is readiness by the Kosovo government to improve healthcare and the quality of education in Mitrovica North,” he said.

OSCE: We’re closely monitoring developments related to law on foreigners (Kosovo Online)

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo stated in a response to Kosovo Online that it is closely monitoring developments related to the adoption of the Law on Foreigners as part of Kosovo’s legal framework, underscoring the importance of ensuring that the law’s implementation is consistent, fair, and fully aligned with applicable legal standards and human rights norms.

When asked whether the law could adversely affect the Serbian community in Kosovo, the OSCE Mission noted in its written reply that the measures and procedures stemming from the law should be clearly defined, applied in a predictable and consistent manner, and communicated in a timely and accessible way.

“The Mission welcomes the steps taken by the competent institutions to inform the public to date and emphasizes the importance of further strengthening awareness and understanding among all communities in Kosovo that will be affected by the law. This includes ensuring that information on rights, obligations, procedures, and implementation deadlines is made available through inclusive and targeted outreach,” the OSCE Mission in Kosovo said.

The Mission added that it encourages continued dialogue and cooperation between the authorities and affected communities in order to achieve a shared understanding and consensus.

Maqedonci meets Hargreaves, discuss cooperation in defense (RTK)

Kosovo’s caretaker Minister of Defense, Ejup Maqedonci, said on Tuesday that he met with British Ambassador to Kosovo Jonathan Hargreaves, and they discussed cooperation in defense. “A fruitful meeting with the British Ambassador to Kosovo, Jonathan Hargreaves, and we discussed strengthening cooperation in defense, capacity building, procurements and joint engagement in international missions and initiatives,” Maqedonci said in a Facebook post. 

NATO is monitoring concerning trends in the Western Balkans, official says (media)

NATO is paying special attention to the Western Balkans, especially because of concerning trends over the last couple of years, an official of the Alliance said on Tuesday, adding that leaders of countries in the region have a great responsibility to safeguard stability.

Speaking to reporters from the Western Balkans in Brussels, the NATO official said that the region is strategically important for the Alliance and that the latter will remain committed to long-term stability and not allow a security vacuum in the region. 

“We see several concerning trends in the region, especially in the last couple of years, that requires a close monitoring of developments,” the official said, adding that the terrorist attack in Banjska in Kosovo in 2023 caused major concern among the allies because it could have had a potential for much wider regional consequences.

Sources: Police arrest two Byelorussians, a Russian and an Albanian national (TeVe1)

The news website reported on Tuesday evening that Kosovo Police have arrested two Byelorussians, a Russian and an Albanian national in Drenas. Sources in the police force said that the arrested were initially accompanied to the police station in Drenas and then transferred to Pristina. The news website learns that the Kosovo Intelligence Agency too is involved in the case and that it is investigating the activities of the arrested persons.

Serbia-run faculty in Kosovo faces 30-day eviction order (Kosovo Online/N1)

Nebojsa Arsic, the Rector of the Serbia-run University of Pristina (temporarily based in North Mitrovica), confirmed that unidentified individuals in plain clothes arrived at the University Rector’s Office on Tuesday morning, demanding that the Faculty of Technical Sciences either vacate its premises within 30 days or sign a formal agreement with the Kosovo-run University of Pristina.

Speaking to Kosovo Online, Arsic said that he could not confirm if the individuals were police officers, as they were not in uniform.

“They presented a document from the (Kosovo-system) University of Pristina, which reads that the Faculty of Technical Sciences building sits on land belonging to the University of Pristina. The document demands that the Faculty either move out within 30 days or enter into a contractual relationship with them. We have reviewed the land plots where the Faculty of Technical Sciences building is located. These are ‘Trepca’ (mining conglomerate) plots. This building was never the property of the University of Pristina, not even before the war,” Arsic said.

He added that the university has informed high-ranking Serbian officials and representatives of the international community about the situation and is currently awaiting their response.

Corruption Perceptions Index 2025: Serbia scores worst in the past two decades (N1)

In the ranking of countries and territories by the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Serbia, with a score of 33 and 116th place, has further worsened its result and, for the first time, is ranked the worst in the region, Transparency Serbia said on Tuesday.

Serbia’s index is two points lower than last year and the lowest since 2012, when the current scoring methodology was introduced, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). A comparison by position in the table relative to the number of ranked countries shows that this is the worst placement since 2004. On this year’s list of the global organization Transparency International, there are a total of 182 countries and territories, and Serbia’s position is as many as 45 places lower than the best result recorded ten years ago.

Compared with other Western Balkan countries and the former Yugoslavia, Serbia ranks the worst, for the first time behind Bosnia and Herzegovina (34), and in the whole of Europe only Belarus (31), Turkey (31) and Russia (22) are ranked lower.

At the top of the global list are Denmark (89) and Finland (88), while at the very bottom are Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9).