UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, February 13, 2023

Kurti: Meeting with Vucic only in context of European plan (media)
Kosovo ready for Kurti-Vucic meeting, Serbia doesn’t give signals (Koha)
Kurti: Since 1999, Kosovo lost over €300 million due to Serbia’s actions (media)
Interior Minister publishes names of arrested in the north (Telegrafi)
Wagner mercenaries helping Serbia prepare potential attack on our nation, Kosovan president warns (The Telegraph)
Kosovo MPs to debate on dialogue with Serbia today (media)
Kosovo push to confiscate unjustified assets raises concerns (Prishtina Insight)
Fact-check: For Kosovars, sky-high inflation hits harder (BIRN)
NATO's Stoltenberg won’t seek another extension of term (Reuters)

Kurti: Meeting with Vucic only in context of European plan (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in an interview with Euronews Albania that his meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic can happen only in the context of the European plan for the normalisation of relations.

Kurti argued that there is international insistence and according to him this comes from the fear that war could spread from Ukraine to the Balkans, and that this is why Western chancelleries are trying to reach an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia as soon as possible. “August 18 last year is a historical date for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. That is when the dialogue for agreement started. I proposed a page with six chapters for what an agreement can contain. Three weeks later, the special envoys of the European Union came to my office and brought the French-German proposal. I expected we were going to have regular monthly meetings, and I don’t know why this did not happen,” he said.

Kurti argued that from the beginning he said that the European plan is a good basis for the dialogue and that Kosovo is waiting for a high-level meeting. “Let us discuss the issue of the European proposal. I hope that we will reach an agreement soon. I am optimistic because there is growing international insistence, and at the same time in Belgrade they have understood that they cannot reach an agreement with me that would be in Kosovo’s detriment,” he said.

According to Kurti, mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia should be at the center of the normalisation of relations. “The [European] plan is not a final agreement, but perhaps an initial discussion. What I liked most about the text is that it is a European and democratic proposal that refers to universal concepts … I agree that the full normalisation is possible only through a legally binding international agreement with centered on mutual recognition,” he added.

On the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, Kurti said that if there is something special about it, it is the fact that it did not pass the test of the Constitutional Court. “Belgrade’s tendency is to bring the agreement on the Association to the center … Serbia has not respected even 2/3 of the total of 33 agreements signed in Brussels,” he said.

Kosovo ready for Kurti-Vucic meeting, Serbia doesn’t give signals (Koha)

The Kosovo government says it is ready for the next meeting in the dialogue with Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, however, last week was skeptical about the next meetings, saying that he has dilemmas whether or not to attend the Munich Security Conference, because he “knows how it will be” and that all issues are useless except for the Association of Serb-majority municipalities.

Spokesperson for the Kosovo government, Perparim Kryeziu, told Kosovapress that they are in contact with the European Union for the next meeting. “We are in contact with the EU for scheduling the next meeting. We have expressed our readiness for this meeting even in public. We will inform you in due time,” Kryeziu said.

Kurti: Since 1999, Kosovo lost over €300 million due to Serbia’s actions (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a Twitter post on Sunday that “Serbia-controlled parallel structures in Kosova's northern municipalities have cost citizens and taxpayers in the rest of the country 320M euros in unpaid energy bills and 17M euros in water supply bills since 1999”.

“The parallel structures do not allow electricity billing & they obstruct implementation of an energy agreement reached in the dialogue 10 years ago. W/ no incentive to save, consumption in these municipalities increased 70+% in a decade, partly due to drug farming & cryptomining. Since '99, Kosova has lost another 300+M euros due to Serbia's actions, such as withholding transmission fees & forcing traders to pay VAT to Serbia on our electricity trade. Even now, Belgrade's refusal to allow trade on the Kosova-Serbia costs Kosova up to 10M euros a month. Of course, our citizens in the northern municipalities are not to blame for these injustices. They understand & accept that paying for basic utilities like electricity & water is normal, and that this would enable the necessary investments to further improve quality of services. They are entitled to have access to such services & to live free from organised crime, pressure & threats by Serbia-led illegal structures. My Govt is committed to improving the quality of life of all Kosova citizens & to provide them the freedom, safety & security they deserve,” Kurti tweeted.

Interior Minister publishes names of arrested in the north (Telegrafi)

Kosovo Police, during an operation in the north on Sunday, destroyed three laboratories with narcotic plants and arrested several suspects, the news website reports. Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, said in a Facebook post that the arrested persons have ties with Serbian officials and have pictures with them. “On Sunday, the Serbian List and Petkovic were irritated by some reactions. The issue is simple: with laboratories, drug traffickers and criminals that are used as political tools, the fake façade cannot last longer than the next police operation. Eight drug laboratories were discovered in 24 months and only today three were busted,” he said.

Svecla also published the names of the arrested and claimed that all of them were involved in earlier attacks against the Kosovo Police. “They erected barricades and intimidated Serb citizens who refused to cooperate with them. After these attacks, they were visited by the [Serbian] Defence Minister Milos Vucevic and Petkovic, and they were supported and protected by Vucic, the Serbian List and Milan Radoicic,” he said.

Serbian List representatives reacted to Svecla’s statements accusing him of trying to politicise the police operation in the north. They argued that neither Petkovic nor Vucic support the criminal activities of any person but that “the illegal activity of a person cannot be an excuse for the actions of Kosovo Police special units in the north”.

Wagner mercenaries helping Serbia prepare potential attack on our nation, Kosovan president warns (The Telegraph)

Mercenaries from Russia's notorious Wagner Group are working with Serbian paramilitaries to smuggle weapons and unmarked military uniforms into Kosovo, the country's president warned on Friday.

The secret operation is designed to lay the groundwork for a potential hybrid attack by Serbia to grab Kosovan territory, Vjosa Osmani claimed in an interview with The Telegraph.

The alleged preparations by Serbia bear parallels to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, when Russian soldiers wearing uniforms stripped of any insignia, dubbed “little green men”, prepared the way for the peninsula’s secession from Moscow.

“They bring in weapons and uniforms but they are not formally part of the Serbian army. Serbia wants to achieve its aims without it being called a military operation,” Ms Osmani told The Telegraph in the presidential office in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.

The Serb objective is to “prepare situations for a possible annexation - not through a traditional military operation but through a hybrid sort of attack”.