Albanian Language Media:

• “We’ll send formal note with PM’s name to Thaci in coming days” (media)
• Kurti assembles party leadership before meeting LDK leader (media)
• Haziri: LDK has not changed requests for coalition (Insajderi)
• Thaci condemns Iranian attacks against the U.S. (media)
• Kurti: The agreement is very close (Gazeta Express)

Serbian Language Media:

• Dacic to continue campaign to revoke recognition of Kosovo (Tanjug, N1, Blic, RTS)
• EU carefully monitoring arrest of Kosovo Albanian in Serbia (KoSSev, N1)
• Kosovo official publishes alleged proof of war crimes (KoSSev, N1)
• Anti-Serb graffiti in Kosovo Serb village (Kosovo online, N1, KIM radio, Blic)
• Serbian government official Djuric in Kosovo for Christmas (Srna, N1)
• Telekom Serbia takes over Kosovo cable operator, removes independent TV (N1, KoSSev)

International:

• Bargain Buy: The Kosovo Traders Defying a Town’s Ethnic Divide (Balkan Insight) 
• Montenegro Holds Journalist for Stirring ‘Panic’ Over Kosovo Intervention (Balkan Insight)
• EU and the Western Balkans in 2020: The Year of Decisions (EWB)
• The power of perspective: Why EU membership still matters in the Western Balkans (ecfr.eu)

Humanitarian/Development:

• UNDP: An Epic Trail Comes to Life in The Balkans 

   

Albanian Language Media

  “We’ll send formal note with PM’s name to Thaci in coming days” (media)

Arberie Nagavci, senior member of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) who was recently elected Deputy President of the Kosovo Assembly, told reporters in Pristina today that “in the coming days” this party will send a written note with the name of the candidate for Prime Minister to Kosovo President Hashim Thaci. 

After the party’s presidency meeting, Nagavci said: “we discussed the issue and we decided that in line with the Constitution, we will send a formal note to the President with the name of the Prime Minister. Afterwards, we expect the President to decree this. We have resumed talks with the LDK [Democratic League of Kosovo] and we expect the agreement to be finalised”.

“We are waiting to see what the request of the LDK is; talks will continue; the [party] presidency has given full mandate to the working group to reach an agreement. It is important for us to know what the request of the LDK is, because we have heard several statements from the LDK,” she added.

Kurti assembles party leadership before meeting LDK leader (Indeksonline)

Several news websites report that Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) leader Albin Kurti will assemble his party’s leadership at 10:00 today before meeting with Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa later in the day. Kurti and Mustafa held a three-hour meeting on Tuesday, but no details were revealed. Indeksonline notes that today expires the 48-hour deadline that Kosovo President Hashim Thaci gave to Kurti to propose a candidate for Prime Minister. Koha reports that the LVV leadership will discuss the proposal for the candidate for Prime Minister that needs to be sent to President Thaci.

Haziri: LDK has not changed requests for coalition (Insajderi)

Deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Lutfi Haziri said discussions with the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) will continue.

“We will continue with meetings. Today is the meeting of the team format, leaders, supported by three most senior party officials. The formation of the discussions has not changed so far, we held discussions yesterday for more than three hours, and today we will continue where we left issues yesterday, in efforts to reach coalition,” Haziri said.

He added that LDK does not have additional requests and it has not changed its positions.

“We neither presented additional requests nor changed our stance, we are discussing to find modalities after the biased decision of 26 December,” Haziri said.

Thaci condemns Iranian attacks against the U.S. (media)

The President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci condemned harshly the Iranian attack against U.S. forces and their allies, calling on official Teheran to give up violence. 

“We condemn the Iranian missile attacks on USA and coalition forces based in Iraq and focused on defeating ISIS. Kosovo is a formal member of the Coalition and we call Iran to de-escalate the violence. We remain in support to US and our Atlantic family in this time of upheaval,” Thaci wrote on his Twitter account. 

Kurti: The agreement is very close (Gazeta Express)

Albin Kurti, leader of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) spoke briefly to the media before leaving for the Kosovo Assembly, where he will meet with the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa. According to Kurti, the coalition deal is very close.

"I hope that now, after the talks have resumed, we will move quickly to reach an agreement that is already very close," Kurti said.

Otherwise, the LDK leaders led by Isa Mustafa have already arrived at the Assembly of Kosovo

  

Serbian Language Media

  Dacic to continue campaign to revoke recognition of Kosovo (Tanjug, N1, Blic, RTS)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday that he would continue the campaign to stop Kosovo joining international institutions which he feels has helped change Serbia’s position in the world.

Serbia will continue its struggle to preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty in 2020 along with the struggle for a compromise solution to the Kosovo issue and withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo’s independence, he said. “I expect more countries to revoke their recognition of so-called Kosovo,” Dacic said, adding that the diplomatic campaign to prevent Kosovo from becoming a member of international institutions and organizations will continue.  

“When we started the process, 113 countries had recognized Kosovo and today they are 93. … The situation has changed, and the number will continue dropping,” Dacic said.

https://bit.ly/2FuhkID EU carefully monitoring arrest of Kosovo Albanian in Serbia (KoSSev, N1)

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told Pristina daily Gazeta Express that the European Union is carefully monitoring the arrest of Kosovo Albanian Nezir Mehmetaj in Serbia.

Mehmetaj was arrested by the Serbian police on January 3 under a warrant for war crimes and was ordered held for 30 days by a court in Belgrade. He was returning to Kosovo after taking his mother to Belgrade for medical treatment. His son told the media in Pristina that his father was not a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the war.  

Stano said that the judiciary in Serbia and Kosovo should be cooperating to investigate crime, adding that under the principles of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Mehmetaj should be tried in Kosovo. “The priority in criminal prosecution should be given to courts in place of residence, in both Kosovo and Serbia,” Stano is quoted as saying.  

Mehmetaj’s arrest prompted the Kosovo foreign ministry to issue a statement, warning the inhabitants of Kosovo to exercise caution when crossing the territory of Serbia.

https://bit.ly/36yxfS1 Kosovo official publishes alleged proof of war crimes (KoSSev, N1)

Kosovo Foreign Ministry official Jetlir Zyberaj on Tuesday posted copies of documents allegedly showing that the Serbian Internal Affairs Ministry (MUP) paid what he claims were paramilitaries who committed war crimes in Kosovo.

Zyberaj, advisor to the outgoing Foreign Minister, posted copies of what he said are per diem payment listings for the MUP Police Special Units (PJP) in 1999 on his Facebook page. He said that the PJP was a paramilitary formation that committed war crimes against the Kosovo Albanians, the KoSSev portal reported.  

The PJP were regular police units whose personnel had more training than other police units and they were used as SWAT units. They were deployed in Kosovo before and during the war and some of their personnel were alleged to have committed crimes against the civilian population.  

See more at: https://bit.ly/2t0RHfZ Anti-Serb graffiti in Kosovo Serb village (Kosovo online, N1, KIM radio, Blic)

Anti-Serb graffiti appeared in several places in the Kosovo village of Pasjane overnight, the Kosovo Online portal reported on Tuesday.

Pasjane is the largest Serb village in the Kosovsko Pomoravlje area with a population of some 2,000 Serbs, the portal said.  

The local representative of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo Zoran Stojkovic told Kosovo Online that the graffiti, which included the initials UCK (KLA) upset the local Serb population and added that the graffiti were written on Christmas eve.  

The offensive graffiti was written on buildings around the road through the village.  

https://bit.ly/39PldGc Serbian government official Djuric in Kosovo for Christmas (Srna, N1)

The head of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo Marko Djuric attended a Christmas service at a church in Mitrovic North on Tuesday.

Speaking after the service, Djuric said that “unity is needed for the survical of the Serb people in Kosovo and in every other place where they live.'' He added that his thoughts, prayers and support go out to the Serbs in Montenegro who he said had risen up to defend their holy shrines. “Let’s forgive each other everything this Christmas,” he said.  

According to Djuric, Serbia will continue showing solidarity with the Serbs in Kosovo and the Serbian church which bears responsibility with state institutions for the survival of the Serbs.

https://bit.ly/2QwwMu5 Telekom Serbia takes over Kosovo cable operator, removes independent TV (N1, KoSSev)

The Kosovo Serb radio TV station Mir has been removed from northern Kosovo’s biggest cable provider VGN, RTV Mir CEO Nenad Radosavljevic said on Tuesday.

RTV Mir was removed from VGN over the weekend after that cable operator sold its equipment and broadcasting rights to MTS D.O.O which is wholly owned by the Serbian state operator Telekom Srbija. “According to the information I received, RTV Mir was removed from the VGN cable system two days ago but it was not removed from other cable operators,”Radosavljevic told RTV Kim. He said that he spoke to the owner of VGN and was told that the cable operator sold everything to MTS d.o.o. on December 30.  

“Other cable operators in Kosovo and Serbia know of the trend of state-owned companies buying them in order to shut down the independent media that say what the authorities do not want aired. The public will not get timely and correct information about political events which have entered a tenser stage,” Radosavljevic said, adding that he expects MTS d.o.o to take over all the other cable operators in northern Kosovo which has a large Serb population.  

Radosavljevic said that he informed the Media Commission but does not expect a reaction over the holiday.  

RTV Mir was set up in the town of Leposavic in 1999 and covers northern and central Kosovo.

https://bit.ly/37LvPnp  

International

  People who will shape the future of the Western Balkans in 2020 (EWB)

The year 2019 has left many unanswered questions. The most important processes in the region – opening of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, reform of the enlargement methodology, resolution political crises in the region – are still ongoing. Many people will get involved in them, but only a handful will make decisions and send messages that will be crucial for the future of the Western Balkans.

https://bit.ly/2N7DZyB Bargain Buy: The Kosovo Traders Defying a Town’s Ethnic Divide (Balkan Insight) 

Serb, Albanian, Roma, Bosniak? In one corner of the ethnically divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica, when it comes to trade, ethnicity is no barrier.

There is a small pocket of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, that defies the norm.

Split between Albanians in the south and Serbs in the north, this once thriving mining town has been a frequent flashpoint since Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, its ethnic division seemingly impervious to attempts at reconciliation.

https://bit.ly/39OLIv7 Montenegro Holds Journalist for Stirring ‘Panic’ Over Kosovo Intervention (Balkan Insight)

Media union calls for release of a journalist detained for ‘causing panic’ by claiming that the government was mulling calling on the security forces in Kosovo to help subdue religion law protests.

A media union has demanded the release of journalist Andjela Djikanovic, who was put in detention for 72 hours for “causing panic and disorder” after claiming in an article that the government might call on security forces in neighbouring Kosovo to help quell protests over a new religion law.

https://bit.ly/2T18w4S EU and the Western Balkans in 2020: The Year of Decisions (EWB)

There were very few positive milestones in 2019 when it comes to the EU perspective of the Western Balkans. Despite expectations, North Macedonia and Albania did not open EU accession negotiations, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not granted candidate status and Kosovo did not get the much-anticipated visa liberalization. Moreover, reform processes continued to stall in both frontrunners, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Serbia-Kosovo normalization process did not resume after tariffs were introduced in late 2018.

https://bit.ly/39RZdtZ The power of perspective: Why EU membership still matters in the Western Balkans (ecfr.eu)

Good neighbourly relations have been part of the European Union’s conditionality requirements since the beginning of its enlargement to central and eastern Europe. But, lately, settling bilateral disputes in the Western Balkans has become an explicit and much emphasised precondition of further enlargements. 

https://bit.ly/2T5ium6  

Humanitarian/Development

  UNDP: An Epic Trail Comes to Life in The Balkans 

Slobodan Brkić lives in the beautiful village of Ziličina in the mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Several years ago, when he was working as a waiter in Banja Luka, a Crohn’s disease diagnosis brought him to a turning point in his life. He found himself grappling with big decisions about his future.

https://bit.ly/2QUkKK9