UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, May 16, 2023

Lajcak: Discussions will continue (media)
No results from new round of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia (media)
Bislimi: Petkovic not interested to hear about the Constitution of Kosovo (media)
Wigemark: Situation in the north is fragile (RTV21)
Kurti: Communities and diversity are assets for Kosovo (media)
Serbia continues its attempts to prevent Kosovo’s membership at CoE (Koha)
Strpce man reported as missing found in Suhareka in good health (Klan)
Kosovo Women Leaving Their Mark in ICT (Prishtina Insight)
EU Director-General for DG NEAR Koopman visits Western Balkans (media)

Lajcak: Discussions will continue (media)

EU Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajçak, said on Monday after his meeting with Kosovo and Serbia chief negotiators in Brussels, that discussions will continue. “I hosted the Chief negotiators of Kosovo Besnik Bislimi and Serbia Petar Petkovic for another round of Dialogue meetings in Brussels. We discussed the way forward on the implementation of the 27 February Agreement and aimed to clarify open questions. Discussions will continue,” Lajcak wrote on Twitter.

No results from the new round of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia (media)

The new round of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia gave no results. In the Brussel meeting held this Monday, chief negotiators Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovic discussed on a variety of topics, mostly focused in the implementation of the Agreement towards normalization between the two countries.

Bislimi confirmed that during last week’s visit to Pristina, Lajcak sent some documents related to the competencies of the mechanism for the implementation of the agreement, with the implementation of the Declaration on the Disappeared, and his approach on how to proceed with the formation of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.

“It is clearly stated in those documents that no party can block the implementation of any article. This is our guide. I don’t believe the EU is willing to let go of a document that they brought and published on their website,” Bislimi said at the end of the meeting.

Petkovic meanwhile said that Belgrade has insisted on the formation of the Associations, but discussions with Pristina aren’t easy. “When we had to talk about serious issues, related to the wellbeing of Serbs in Kosovo, Albin Kurti’s institutional violence towards Serbs, which happens every day… Bislimi didn’t want to give concrete answers. All the time, he would try to make the flow of the dialogue meaningless,” Petkovic told reporters.

Ahead of the trilateral meeting, Lajcak held separate meetings with Bislimi and Petkovic.

This was the first chief negotiators meeting after that between Albin Kurti and Aleksandar Vucic on May 2nd in Brussel. There are no announcements as to what will be the next steps in the dialogue and when the next meeting will be held.

Bislimi: Petkovic not interested to hear about the Constitution of Kosovo (media)

Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said that in the meeting with his Serbian counterpart, he realized that Serbia is looking for the Association according to the 2015 agreement.

“From the Serbian side, it was said today that they are not interested in the Constitution of Kosovo, they are not interested in Mogherini's letter either, they are only interested in what they received from Mr. Isa Mustafa in 2015 and Mr. Petkovic also read what they received from Mr. Mustafa in 2015, saying that this is how we want the association," Bislimi said after the meeting.

"On the implementation of point 7, it was specified today by Mr. Lajcak that what appeared on his Facebook page was a technical error. The draft is not treated as a starting point, but the presentation of the draft, the act of presentation marks the starting point of discussions on the implementation of point 7, as we have said several times in our public announcements. Other parts are those criteria we talked about that are very important," he said further.

Bislimi said that for Serbia, only the Association is primary, and then they want to continue with the other points. "The Serbian side has said that we are only interested in the part of the Association and then we will talk about the rest. However, there was no willingness from the Serbian side to discuss today. The situation in the north has not been addressed at all today," he said.

Wigemark: Situation in the north is fragile (RTV21)

Head of the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, said in an interview with RTV21 on Monday that the situation in the north of Kosovo is tense and fragile. He called on the Kosovo government to continue dialogue with Serbia and avoid any potential escalation in the north.

Wigemark did not confirm reports according to which Serbia’s Ministry of Interior Affairs has opened its offices in northern Kosovo. “We have not noticed any change in the last couple of days and we cannot confirm any of these reports on new offices of Serbian police,” he said.

Kurti: Communities and diversity are assets for Kosovo (media)

At the invitation of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, a reception was organized on Monday to celebrate the annual award from the European Union for the integration of Roma communities in the Western Balkans and Turkey of the Office for Good Governance. Kurti said that communities and diversity are assets for Kosovo.

"Communities and diversity are assets for Kosovo, but we are aware of the challenges that exist for our Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian fellow citizens. We are committed that, together with civil society and international partners, we will overcome these challenges for the full realization of the rights of the communities. In particular, I am happy about the Strategy for advancing the rights of the Roma and Ashkali communities, which our government approved last year. Thanks to the dedicated work of the Office for Good Governance, it is more likely that this Strategy will be realized due to the allocation of the budget for all activities - which has not been done so far," Kurti said.

Serbia continues its attempts to prevent Kosovo’s membership at CoE (Koha)

The news website reports that on the eve of the next Summit of the Council of Europe, Serbia is aiming to introduce an amendment, that would call for the respect of the sovereignty of the state, in an attempt to stop the progress of Kosovo's application for membership in this organization. However, in this initiative, Serbia has not found support from the majority of member states, and this has also been admitted by the head of Serbian diplomacy, Koha reports.

Strpce man who was reported as missing found in Suhareka in good health (Klan)

The news website reported that a Serb from the municipality of Strpce, Goran Kocic, who was reported as missing three days ago, was found in Suhareka on Monday evening. The Kosovo Police said in a statement: “On 12.05.2023, at around 07:50 the Kosovo Police station in Strpce received an information that a man from the village Biti e Eperme, municipality of Strpce went missing. After receiving the information, the Kosovo Police teams in close cooperation with the family members and residents of the area, search and rescue teams of the Kosovo Security Force, launched a search operation on his whereabouts. Tonight [Monday], at around 21:00, the man was found in the Suhareka region, who initially was sent to the health Center of Suhareka where doctors on duty confirmed he is in good health condition and has no injuries. Kocic was handed over to members of his family whereas the prosecutor of the case has been informed about the actions”.

Kosovo Women Leaving Their Mark in ICT (Prishtina Insight)

The number of women studying information and communication technology has increased quickly in Kosovo, more than in many other European countries. Prishtina Insight looks closer at the phenomenon and the actors behind it.

For Rona Latifaj, a 19-year-old student in her second year of a computer science Bachelor’s program at the University of Prishtina, gender balance within her faculty is not much of a concern. “The number of girls and boys in my department is pretty even,” she observes, providing some basic statistics: 27 women students to 29 men students in the Bachelor’s program, and 9 women to 6 men in the Master’s program.

However, most of her professors at the university are men.

“In previous years, when you see how many of them have graduated, a third were women,” Rona continues. “And in the 1980s, when my parents graduated in engineering, only a tenth of the students were women.”

Although these proportions vary across faculties, the increase of girls in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] field studies, that were traditionally men-dominated, in Kosovo is evident. Their participation has even surpassed 50 per cent this year, according to Valdrin Dervishaj, advisor to the Minister of Education.