• ‘Red lines’ to be reasserted in Berlin (Koha Ditore)
• Thaci: I don’t expect anything new from Berlin summit (RTV 21)
• Haradinaj hopes to harmonise positions with Thaci ahead of Berlin meeting (media)
• Hahn: Goal of Berlin meeting is to unblock Belgrade-Pristina dialogue (media)
• O'Connell: Border changes may not end tensions between Kosovo and Serbia (Euronews)
• KDI writes to Thaci and Haradinaj, urges them to unify positions (media)
• Thaci ‘sabotages’ testimony before Assembly committee (Koha)

 Kosovo Media Highlights

‘Red lines’ to be reasserted in Berlin (Koha Ditore)

The paper quotes what it says are reliable sources saying that the 29 April summit of the Western Balkans leaders in Berlin is expected to result in the reassertion of ‘red lines’ with regards to the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

Sources said a special focus of the summit will be the unblocking of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia and reaffirmation of principles upon which the agreement needs to be reached. To this end, organizers are said to be already working on drafting conclusions which the participants are expected to endorse at the end of the event.

These are reported to include support for a Kosovo-Serbia agreement that would be comprehensive, politically sustainable and contribute to regional stability. While this wording, according to the paper, does not specify the type of the agreement, it is evident it rules out the border change idea.

At the summit, Kosovo and Serbia are expected to be urged to step up efforts to implement agreements reached so far in the course of the dialogue and renew constructive commitment to dialogue to reach a comprehensive and definite agreement.

Thaci: I don’t expect anything new from Berlin summit (RTV 21)

In an interview with RTV 21, President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci welcomed the joint German-French efforts in organizing a summit of Western Balkans leaders in Berlin but emphasized that he doesn’t expect anything new to come out of the meeting and certainly no negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia.

“I don’t expect any new process. I expect discussion on new possibilities, commending the agreement between North Macedonia and Greece on the name issue as an opportunity for Euro-Altantic perspective. At the same time, I expect nothing new and no negotiations or dialogue. There will be a call for continuation of the dialogue between the state of Kosovo and of Serbia on the possibility of reaching a comprehensive agreement on normalisation,” he said.

As to whether the two parties will agree to continue dialogue, Thaci said this is something that he was skeptical about and added that “we will make it clear we will not allow the dialogue to continue with conditionings.”

“I expect the German Chancellor Merkel to convince President Vucic to recognise independence of Kosovo and to call on five EU member states to recognise Kosovo and on Bosnia as well as it will be there. It will be a good possibility for this to happen. At the same time, we will not accept under any circumstance for someone to propose for Kosovo some type of dual sovereignty or any German-German model, a Republika Srpska or any autonomy."

Haradinaj hopes to harmonise positions with Thaci ahead of Berlin meeting (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj said after the meeting of the government that he hopes there will be no discordance of views with President Hashim Thaci during the 29 April meeting in Berlin between Western Balkans leaders.

“The Berlin summit is a multilateral meeting, Kosovo will stick to the positions it has held in continuity and I hope there will be no discordance of vies with the President. We will have time to speak before the event and will most probably harmonise the stances but I have no other positions except for those presented so far,” he said.

Hahn: Goal of Berlin meeting is to unblock Belgrade-Pristina dialogue (media)

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, told the German news agency DPA as reported by the paper Handelsblat that the main goal of the Berlin summit is to unblock the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. “There should be signals in this meeting,” he said.

“It is clear that a sustainable solution should come from the two countries which have to reach a final possible solution and present it to their citizens,” Hahn said adding that an imposed solution would not work.

O'Connell: Border changes may not end tensions between Kosovo and Serbia (Euronews)

Britain’s Ambassador to Kosovo, Ruairi O'Connell, spoke to Euronews about Kosovo-Serbia relations and said that a border change would not necessarily end tensions between the two parties.

“There's a number of deep traumas that came out of the wars and moving borders isn’t really going to address those between two countries that are going to remain neighbours and should be aiming for a future that isn’t just antagonism over a new border but an actual partnership and in the future, friendship,” he said.

On the upcoming Western Balkans summit in Berlin, O’Connell said he did not expect a big breakthrough: “What we really need the leaders to do is to focus on the fact that both need a full comprehensive deal and they both know that. There’s momentum in the region, let’s use that. We don’t need a quick deal, we need the right deal and that needs both sides to come prepared and to talk to their people and get ready to sit down at the table seriously. Maybe not in Berlin at this time but very soon after.”

See the interview: https://bit.ly/2XQOx86

KDI writes to Thaci and Haradinaj, urges them to unify positions (media)

Ahead of the summit of Western Balkans leaders, the Kosovo Democratic Institute wrote an open letter to President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj urging them to harmonise their positions before they travel to Berlin. KDI warns that the failure to do so can harm Kosovo’s position.

“KDI, through this open letter, calls on you as top country officials to represent the state of Kosovo in this summit with a unified voice regarding the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and issues relating to this process. A coordinated institutional approach that also reflects the citizens’ will would directly strengthen Kosovo’s negotiating position towards Serbia and would send a clear message to European Union member states that Kosovo is responsible in addressing all international obligations,” the letter says.

Thaci ‘sabotages’ testimony before Assembly committee (Koha)

In the coverage of yesterday’s hearing of the Kosovo Assembly’s committee investigating the deportation of six Turkish nationals in which President Hashim Thaci testified, Koha reports that the meeting did not go as planned.

The paper writes that Thaci ‘sabotaged’ his own testimony by not answering the questions of the committee members and questioning the legality of the report into the deportation prepared by an expert hired by the committee. “In the end, Thaci left without answering the questions of MPs about the issue he was invited to speak about,” the paper writes.

Chair of the committee, Xhelal Svecla from Vetevendosje, said the expert hired to prepare the report was well-qualified and received the unanimous support of the committee. Svecla said Thaci tried to obstruct the hearing in order to avoid possible prosecution.

“Hashim Thaci did not answer about his role in the deportation of the Turkish nationals. He tried in different ways to obstruct the functioning of the committee and this culminated in the arrogance and hypocrisy of a lying president. We will ask the prosecution to summon the president before the committee about his role in the biggest violation of sovereignty of our country,” Svecla told KTV.