• Elezi: Vote recount until end of January; announcement of results in early Feb (EO)
• Hargreaves: Recount carries risks for deadlines; important for President to be elected on time (T7)
• Kurti: Serbia has realized better than ever before that we are a state (Koha)
• Kurti met with representatives from the Council on Foreign Economic Relations (media)
• Kosovo and Bahamas sign agreement on exemption of entry visa requirements (media)
• Lavrov: Russia is ready to communicate with the US about the Balkans (RFE)
• Kosovo rolls out daily power cuts as winter demand strains grid (Bloomberg)
• Ibrahim Rugova: Friends remember peaceful architect of Kosovo’s independence (BIRN)
• Petkovic: Kosovo won’t be recognized while Vucic leads Serbia (Kosovo Online)

Elezi: Vote recount until end of January; announcement of results in early Feb (EO)

Spokesperson for Kosovo’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Valmir Elezi said on Tuesday that the vote recount process is expected to conclude in late January and that the final election results will be announced in early February. He said that currently dozens of teams are working to speed up the vote recount. 

Hargreaves: Recount carries risks for deadlines; important for President to be elected on time (T7)

UK Ambassador to Kosovo, Jonathan Hargreaves, in an interview with T7 on Tuesday, highlighted the importance of respecting the deadlines for the election of the Kosovo President, and that the vote recount process is very important for the integrity of the process. “This demonstrates the system’s ability to identify weaknesses and address them, in order to preserve the integrity of the elections. This, of course, carries some risks in terms of timelines, and I hope the Commission completes the recount as quickly as possible,” he said. “It is extremely important that after this, political parties come together, the Assembly is constituted, and the government begins work, so that the budget and international agreements can be approved as soon as possible. Likewise, it is very important that the process of electing the new president takes place within the prescribed deadlines. I am confident that all parties are committed to this, because everyone understands the importance these very significant processes have for Kosovo”.

Kurti: Serbia has realized better than ever before that we are a state (Koha)

The institutional deadlock in 2025, elections and relations with Serbia were some of the topics that Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti discussed with former British politician Rory Steward during his stay in Davos, Switzerland. 

Kurti said that “Serbia is not expected to recognize Kosovo soon although it has understood that we are a state”. “From the four neighbors we have, three of them have recognized us: Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Serbia does not recognize us and it seems that they will not do so soon although I think that they understand better than ever before that we are a state. The reality has changed a lot. What we need is for their dream to return to Kosovo to disappear,” he said. 

On the institutional deadlock in 2025, Kurti said that his objective were not new elections but that they came as a result of lack of cooperation by the opposition. “We tried everything. We tried to meet with one or two opposition parties. One of them did not want to meet, while the other was asking for the post of Assembly Speaker although it had only three MPs. And even when they did not accept our candidate for Assembly Speaker and we changed it several times, the opposition MPs still said no,” he argued.

Kurti met with representatives from the Council on Foreign Economic Relations (media)

Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti had a working lunch at the Kosovo House in Davos with representatives from the Council on Foreign Economic Relations, including Alexander Kunitz and Maximilian Hoffmann, as well as Executive Director Max Gulde from “Constellr”, Carl Holshouser from “CoreWeave”, Dr. Tanja Wielgoß from “SPD Economic Council” and Matthias Ibrahim Krug from “Velmora Capital”. They discussed competitive integrity as a basis for trust, institutional stability and a more attractive investment climate.

A press release issued by Kurti’s office notes that he “highlighted Kosovo’s progress in security, rule of law and macro-fiscal stability as factors that directly translate into a better business environment”.

The positioning of Kosovo as a hub for companies seeking reliable capacities and proximity to EMENA markets was discussed. Kurti presented the priority of public investments of over 7 billion euros in transport, environment and energy to improve logistics and economic predictability.

Kosovo and Bahamas sign agreement on exemption of entry visa requirements (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said on Tuesday that the ambassadors of Kosovo and the Bahamas signed an agreement in Washington D.C. on the mutual exemption of entry visa requirements for the people of Kosovo and the Bahamas. “Building on our meeting and agreement with Prime Minister Philip E Davis following the act of recognition and establishment of diplomatic relations in December, this step reflects our shared commitment to strengthening the partnership between our two countries — and, above all, between our people — bringing them closer together,” Osmani said in a post on X.

Lavrov: Russia is ready to communicate with the US about the Balkans (RFE)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is communicating with the United States about the Balkans and that it is ready to further develop the contacts. “We have more possibilities to communicate with the United States [than with the European Union] about the Balkans, when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the region. These contacts are ongoing. They have not yet achieved a positive result or something else. But we are open for such contacts and from what I can see our American colleagues are also ready to develop them,” Lavrov told a press conference.

Kosovo rolls out daily power cuts as winter demand strains grid (Bloomberg)

Kosovo is imposing daily power cuts as winter demand pushes the country’s electricity system to its limits, leaving homes and businesses without power for up to two hours during peak periods of the day. Grid operator KOSTT said electricity demand this month exceeded forecasts by roughly 26%, creating hourly imbalances averaging more than 200 megawatts and peaking above 260 megawatts.

Read more at: http://tiny.cc/shxx001

Ibrahim Rugova: Friends remember peaceful architect of Kosovo’s independence (BIRN)

On the 20th anniversary of the death of Kosovo’s first president, friends and former colleagues recall the quiet booklover who became a symbol of a free and democratic Kosovo.

“It was at that time that the demand for a republic of Kosovo was born and took shape. This generation carried the spirit forward with enthusiasm and brought us along with it.”

Rexhep Ismaili is recalling 1968, a year of hope for change across Europe – and in Kosovo too. At that point, Kosovo was part of the Yugoslav federation and dominated by Serb governance. But its downtrodden ethnic Albanian majority was beginning to demand greater freedom. “These were circumstances that demanded a voice,” Ismaili said.

The summer of 1968 was also when Ismaili first met Ibrahim Rugova – the man who years later would become the first president of Kosovo, after the collapse of Yugoslavia.

Both enrolled in linguistic studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Pristina. Ismaili and Rugova, who was born in 1944 in the mountainous village of Cerce/Cerca in near the western town of Istog/Istok, became close and decided to share a dormitory room.

Read more at: https://shorturl.fm/rrnHl

Petkovic: Kosovo won’t be recognized while Vucic leads Serbia (Kosovo Online)

Head of the Serbian government’s office for Kosovo, Petar Petkovic, said on Tuesday that Albin Kurti is “spouting nonsense from Davos by claiming that the so-called Kosovo is some kind of state,” even though, in reality, it is, as he stated, a provisional entity not recognized by more than half of the world. “It seems that Albin Kurti has become confused, so from Davos he is firing off nonsense that the so-called Kosovo is some kind of state, while in reality it is a provisional and failed construct that is not recognized by more than half of the world. Nevertheless, Kurti was reluctantly forced to admit that he will never obtain recognition while Aleksandar Vucic is at the helm of Serbia, and that is a painful truth for him—one he shares together with the blockers in Belgrade whom he wholeheartedly supports,” Petkovic said.

Read more at: https://shorten.ly/RzMWB