Albanian Language Media:

• After Petkovic, Lajcak meets Bislimi, tests if there is will for tripartite meeting (media)
• Kurti: The 2024 budget will be a defense and security budget (RTK)
• PDK does not support 2024 draft budget: It does not bring development alternatives (Reporteri)
• Macron: Tensions in Kosovo have calmed down a bit - I'm not worried about resumption of conflict (Klan)
• Krasniqi meets Varhelyi, talk about European integration process of Kosovo (Klan)
• Ekaterina Trendafilova to visit Kosovo at the end of the month (Klan)

Serbian Language Media:

• The meeting of the Belgrade delegation with Lajcak ended; the main topic the Statute of the CSM (N1) 
• Professor Ćorac: If manganese is found in water, it can cause certain health disorders (gracanicaonline.info)
• Survey: A majority believe that Serbia and Kosovo Serbs’ position is weaker under the current government; the majority would vote for Vucic again (KoSSev)
• The Government of Serbia sent a request for "collecting votes" for the upcoming elections, the OSCE informed Pristina (KoSSev)
• Gasic: Kosovo Albanian mafia supplying weapons to people smugglers in northern Serbia (Tanjug, RTS, Kosovo Online, N1)
• Dacic met Botsan-Kharchenko (Tanjug, Radio Mitrovica sever)

   

Albanian Language Media  

 

After Petkovic, Lajcak meets Bislimi, tests if there is will for tripartite meeting (media)

The Eu Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak has started today in Brussels the meetings  with Kosovo and Serbia chief negotiators, Petar Petkovic and Besnik Bislimi, to discuss the implementation of preliminary agreements reached between the two parties.

Lajcak met first with the chief negotiator of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, at the same time head of the Office for Kosovo in the government of Serbia.

Currently, Lajcak is holding a meeting with the chief negotiator of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, who is also deputy prime minister of Kosovo.

After this, if there is will from the parties, there can be a tripartite meeting.

Bislimi said on Wednesday that the November 16 meeting is a continuation of the meeting held on October 26 with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the European bloc.

Petkovic said a few days ago that he will go to Brussels with a "team of experts".

Kurti: The 2024 budget will be a defense and security budget (RTK)

The Assembly of Kosovo has begun today the first review of the Draft Law on budget allocations for the Budget of Kosovo for 2024.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that the 2024 budget will be a defense and security budget, as the government has allocated an additional 22% budget compared to 2023. Kurti has said that 370 million euros have been allocated for defense and security, the largest amount ever distributed.

"Kosovo's budget for 2024 will be 3.3 billion euros, it will be the defense and security budget, for which we have allocated 370 million euros, or 22% more than currently. 153 million euros for the Ministry of Defense and 216 million euros for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than ever", Kurti said in the Assembly of Kosovo, where he presented the draft budget for next year.

He announced that Kosovo will have 600 soldiers and 500 new policemen in 2024.

PDK does not support 2024 draft budget: It does not bring development alternatives (Reporteri)

The MP from the ranks of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Mergim Lushtaku, has said that the PDK parliamentary group will not vote in favor of the 2024 draft budget. During his speech at the Assembly session where the 2024 budget is being discussed, Lushtaku said that this budget does not bring any development alternatives for the country.

"The Parliamentary Group of PDK will not support the draft budget of 2024. We are against this budget that does not bring any development alternative and is not a budget for the well-being of citizens", he said, among other things at the Assembly session.

The draft budget has also been criticized by LDK and AAK.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Kurti, while presenting the budget for 2024, said that the total budget for next year will be 3 billion and 314 million euros.

Macron: Tensions in Kosovo have calmed down a bit - I'm not worried about resumption of conflict (Klan)

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, during his stay in Lausanne, met the President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset. According to "24heures", in a meeting that they held with students at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), among many topics, Kosovo was also discussed.

From the audience, Macron had a question about the tensions in Kosovo.

"They have calmed down a bit now," he said, and added that he hopes that the leaders of the two countries, Kurti and Vucic, will accept the drafted plan.

The French president expressed concern about inter-ethnic conflicts taking place in different parts of the world.

"I am worried, but I am not worried about the resumption of the conflict in Kosovo", declared Macron.

Krasniqi meets Varhelyi, talk about European integration process of Kosovo (Klan)

The leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi met the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi. Krasniqi announced that he and Varhely talked about the European integration process of Kosovo and the importance of not being left behind in this process.

“It is more than necessary for the state and our citizens to have a clear and tangible European perspective,” Krasniqi said.

Further, he said that to PDK, Kosovo's membership in the European Union and Euro-Atlantic institutions is the vision, mission, and the only way forward.

Ekaterina Trendafilova to visit Kosovo at the end of the month (Klan)

The President of the Specialized Chambers of the Special Court, Ekaterina Trendafilova, will visit Kosovo at the end of this month.

She is expected to hold a meeting with civil society organizations to inform them about the developments and work of the Special Court and will answer their questions.

Trendafilova will also hold a press conference.

     

Serbian Language Media

 

The meeting of the Belgrade delegation with Lajcak ended; the main topic the Statute of the CSM (N1) 

N1 reported that the bilateral meeting between the Belgrade delegation led by the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, and the EU's special representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajcak, and his team has ended.

As N1 correspondent reports, the meeting lasted for more than two hours, and according to unofficial information, the main topic was the drafting of the CSM Statute. In parallel, separate meetings of experts were held to discuss missing persons and energy.

The Kosovo delegation, led by the chief negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, entered the talks with Lajcak around noon. After that, a trilateral meeting is planned, but there is no confirmation that it will take place.

As announced, Belgrade brought to Brussels the largest team of 18 experts for the areas under negotiation, primarily the Community/Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority, the missing and energy.

Professor Ćorac: If manganese is found in water, it can cause certain health disorders (gracanicaonline.info)

Manganese belongs to the group of oligo elements, our body needs it a lot, but if it is in water, it can lead to certain health disorders, Professor Aleksandar Corac told Gracanica Online portal. 

As announced on October 19 from the Kosovo Institute for Public Health and the Regional Waterworks "Pristina", a higher amount of manganese than allowed was found in Lake Gracanica. According to their recommendations, the water is neither for drinking nor for cooking, and the locals are urged to buy water.

"Manganese belongs to the group of oligo elements. Our body needs it very much, in some small amounts. It is estimated that there are about 12 milligrams of it, if I am not mistaken, in our body in total, primarily in the bones. Therefore, it belongs to the group of oligo elements, those substances that we need little, in very small quantities. When there is a lot of it, it becomes poisonous. This is the so-called manganism, which can be manifested most often when manganese is found in the form of manganese oxides, manganese oxides, in the air and when inhaled. This is a specific situation that it is in the water. In that situation, it can lead to certain health disorders," Aleksandar Corac, professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Kosovska Mitrovica, told Gracanica Online portal.

According to the professor, the key impact of manganese on health is that it is a neurodegenerative substance.

"When its toxic effect manifests itself neurodegeneratively, it means that there is a lot of it. When we say neurodegenerative, it means that it leads to degeneration, to the deterioration of nerves. And that manifestation can happen both on the peripheral nerves, on the nerves as we would say, and it can also happen in the central nervous system. So, it can even lead to a form of illness like Parkinsonism, and this is especially manifested if a large amount of manganese occurs in children," says Professor Corac, adding that in children the nervous system itself has not yet matured enough to consume the substance that is neurodegenerative.

"That's why the presence of manganese in water, presence in the environment in large quantities, and introduction into the body in different ways is very dangerous. It is not dangerous at the level at which some of its accompanying elements are dangerous, but I say, it can be extremely dangerous, because of this neurodegenerative effect," he said.

Professor Corac appealed to the authorities to investigate as soon as possible where the presence of manganese in Lake Gracanica came from.

"It is most likely not geogenous, which means it is most likely not of natural origin, because if it was geogenous, it would have been fortified and would have been found sometime before. It is likely that some source of that manganese exists and given that it can be accompanied by more toxic heavy metals, then it should be determined where it came from," Professor Aleksandar Corac concluded.

In the latest announcement of the municipality of Pristina, it was stated that the reference values of manganese in the water are decreasing, but that the water from Lake Gracanica is still unusable.

The competent institutions of Kosovo have not yet announced how the manganese got into the lake, from which the inhabitants of Gracanica, Ajvalija and parts of the city of Pristina are supplied with water.

Survey: A majority believe that Serbia and Kosovo Serbs’ position is weaker under the current government, the majority would vote for Vucic again (KoSSev)

New Serbian Political Thought published a November survey of public opinion in Serbia on the current position of the state and Serbs in Kosovo. This time, the survey also included attitudes towards Serbia’s entry into the EU, as well as the quality of their lives. NSPT also asked the respondents to reveal for which party they would vote first.

As many as 57.3% of respondents think that Serbia’s position, as well as that of the Serbian people in Kosovo, is weaker under the current government.

Only 10% of respondents believe that this position is stronger, while 7.8% say that the position of Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo is “the same” as it was before.

The remaining respondents (24.9%) have no opinion on this issue at all.

Although a significant majority of those who answered the question think that Serbia’s position with the current government is weaker, the majority of the respondents say that they would vote again for the current Serbian president.

The answer to the question: “If parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, which party, list, or coalition would you vote for” – 39.2% replied that they would choose Aleksandar Vucic. 

On the other hand, 25.8% stated that they would vote for Serbia against violence (Miroslav Aleksić, Marinika Tepić, Radomir Lazović, Dragan Djilas, Zoran Lutovac, Zdravko Ponoš, Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, Pavle Grbović – (SSP, PSG, DS, ZZS, SRCE, NPS, Ecological Uprising, Green Left Front). While 8.1% of respondents said they would vote for Ivica Dačić and Dragan Marković Palma.

A total of 5.1% of citizens would vote for Dveri and Zavetnici, and 4.4% supported Dr. Miloš Jovanović – HOPE for Serbia (NDSS – POKS).

Only 3.2% would support the People’s Party – “Safe choice, serious people”, and only 2.5% would support the “Enough is Enough” party, headed by Saša Radulović and Boris Tadić.

Read more at:https://tinyurl.com/23yrcmsk

The Government of Serbia sent a request for "collecting votes" for the upcoming elections, the OSCE informed Pristina (KoSSev)

Parliamentary and local elections will be held in Serbia on December 17. As before, Serbia has also requested that this process be organized in Kosovo.

The OSCE mission in Kosovo, in response to Gazeta Express, announced that on November 3, it received a request from the Government of Serbia to collect votes from voters living in Kosovo.

The OSCE announced that it has informed the Government of Kosovo and "other parties" and that they are ready to carry out the collection of these votes "under the same conditions as in previous cases".

The newspaper Gazeta Express also sent questions to the address of the Prime Minister's office, but so far, they have not responded.

On November 6, Prime Minister Kurti met with the head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, Michael Davenport, but the Government's announcement did not reveal whether Belgrade's request was discussed.

Gasic: Kosovo Albanian mafia supplying weapons to people smugglers in northern Serbia (Tanjug, RTS, Kosovo Online, N1)

Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Thursday organised crime groups smuggling migrants in northern Serbia were assisted by Albanian mafia from Kosovo, reported Tanjug agency.

"They are not migrants, but organised crime groups we are fighting against. Let's distinguish between migrants and organised crime groups assisted by Albanian mafia coming from our southern province. All weapons are coming from down there," Gasic said at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new Gendarmerie Command building in Rakovica, Belgrade.

He thanked the Gendarmerie personnel for their engagement in curbing illegal migration in the border cities of Subotica, northern Serbia, and Pirot, southeastern Serbia.

Dacic met Botsan-Kharchenko (Tanjug, Radio Mitrovica sever)

Serbian First Deputy PM and FM Ivica Dacic received Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko on Thursday.

Dacic and Kharchenko discussed bilateral relations and further development of cooperation between the two countries, cooperation and activities within international organizations, as well as the current situation in Kosovo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

Current foreign policy issues were also discussed at the meeting.