• COVID-19: 932 new cases, 20 deaths (media)
• EU drops Kosovo from list of COVID-safe countries (Radio Free Europe)
• Kurti: EU to create new momentum for reforms; make enlargement fairer (media)
• Osmani: United Nations membership, a continuous goal of ours (media)
• Lajcak: Kosovo’s full international integration, a priority in dialogue (Koha)
• Haradinaj offers recommendations for managing COVID-19 situation (media)
• PDK calls on government to change approach to vaccination process (media)
• Kosovo PM urges Serbia to reveal truth about wartime missing (BIRN)
• “Kurti, Osmani won’t enter into talks before Serbia returns our loved ones” (ATV)
• Hoti: Kosovo to be ready; dialogue must end with mutual recognition (media)

COVID-19: 932 new cases, 20 deaths (media)

Kosovo recorded 932 new cases with COVID-19 and 20 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. 962 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 26,525 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said on Monday that the number of inspectors will be six times higher as of today, with 85 of them joining efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. He also announced additional vaccines expected to reach Kosovo today. Kurti said that the number of hospital beds has also increased to over 1,600 and that the central system for oxygen therapy has been expanded to also include regional hospitals while 53,200 additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Kosovo today.

EU drops Kosovo from list of COVID-safe countries (Radio Free Europe)

The Council of the European Union confirmed on Monday that Kosovo was dropped from the list of COVID-safe countries. “Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted. In particular, Israel, Kosovo[1], Lebanon, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the United States of America were removed from the list,” a press release noted.

Kurti: EU to create new momentum for reforms; make enlargement fairer (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said in remarks delivered virtually at the European Forum Alpbach in Austria that he believes the EU has already won the hearts and minds of the people of the Western Balkans and this, he said, is evident in the race to join the EU as well as in the disappointment when these countries don’t pass the next stage of integration journey.

“The policy of sticks and carrots was never fruitful for Kosovo because we received many sticks but not so many carrots. More than a decade has passed since all WB6 members got visa liberalisation while Kosovo is still waiting, isolated as in a ghetto, an image which brings a lot of shame for both sides,” he said as quoted in a press release issued by the Government of Kosovo.

Kurti also spoke about missing persons and noted that sometimes the ambition to move to the future gets entangled with the duty to deal with the past. “We need to remind ourselves and our allies that only by facing the past can we move to the future. There is no other way”, he said.

He added that the EU needs to create a new momentum in relation to the Western Balkans and make enlargement “fairer and more sincere”.

Kurti was invited to physically take part in the forum but cancelled his participation due to the worsened situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Osmani: United Nations membership, a continuous goal of ours (media)

The President of the Republic of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani received at a meeting the UN Assistant Secretary-General for the EU, Central Asia and the Americas, Mr. Miroslav Jenca. At the meeting with the UN delegation, President Osmani stressed that UN membership remains Kosovo’s goal, given the fact that our country is already a member of several agencies of this organization.

“As we are working with dedication to join NATO, we are doing the same for membership in the United Nations, a continuous goal of ours,” Osman said. Furthermore, President Osmani added that Kosovo, similar to the rest of the world, is facing the new wave of Covid-19 and expressed her hope in the support of friendly countries in order to overcome this situation. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Jenca promised further support through the COVAX initiative to help Kosovo face the pandemic. He thanked Kosovo for providing shelter to the citizens from Afghanistan. Mr. Jenca emphasized that this organization will continue to support the Working Group on Forcibly Disappeared, as well as strengthening the position of women, for which he praised Kosovo for the steps already taken.

Lajcak: Kosovo’s full international integration, a priority in dialogue (Koha)

The Special Representative of the European Union for the Prishtina – Belgrade Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said on Monday that Kosovo’s full international integration and its internal consolidation are the two key objectives in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. He said that Kosovo’s recognition will also be discussed in the process.

Lajcak commented on the Open Balkan initiative by Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia, saying that it is an unhealthy competition for the European integration processes in countries of the Western Balkans. “In this case the Open Balkan would not be a healthy competition. We already have very similar initiatives, such as CEFTA, where there are similar formats like this one. What is important is to measure the capability of these formats for bringing the region even closer to the European Union and to create European norms and standards,” Lajcak said during a virtual presentation for the European Forum Alpbach in Austria.

Lajcak also wrote on a Twitter post that he discussed relations between the EU and Western Balkans with Kosovo PM Albin Kurti and North Macedonia PM Zoran Zaev. “We all agreed that there is no alternative to an honest and genuine enlargement process for the region,” he tweeted.

Haradinaj offers recommendations for managing COVID-19 situation (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj posted on social media a list of recommendations for handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the AAK has insisted on a ‘controlled opening’ of the economy and financial stimulus for every sector affected by the pandemic.

Haradinaj also proposed the broadening of healthcare capacities, engagement of volunteers, operationalisation of mobile teams as well as opening of temporary hospitals.

“NO to total lockdown, NO to uncontrolled management,” he stated.

PDK calls on government to change approach to vaccination process (media)

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the biggest opposition party, said on Monday that the government must change its approach to the vaccination process “in this tragic period”. “The government must come up with a concrete plan for a steady supply with vaccines, to increase the vaccination capacities and to decentralise the service, by enabling vaccination seven days a week, for all citizens, in neighborhoods, villages and cities, and not to keep centralised a process that is crucial for the lives of the people of Kosovo,” the party said in a statement.

Kosovo PM urges Serbia to reveal truth about wartime missing (BIRN)

At a ceremony to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called on Serbia to open up its state archives to reveal where the remaining wartime missing persons are buried.

Albin Kurti asked Serbia on Monday to open its state archives relating to the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, arguing that “as regards missing persons, the answer lies there [in Belgrade]”.

Kurti was speaking at a ceremony in Pristina to mark the International Day of the Disappeared. Along with Kurti, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani laid flowers at a monument dedicated to missing persons in front of the premier’s office in Kosovo’s capital.

A total of 1,632 people are still listed as missing from the war – most of them Kosovo Albanains, but also some Serbs.

Kurti said that “missing persons will always be a main topic in our relations with Serbia”.

“We cannot pretend to have either a sustainable or secure future if we do not address the issues of the past,” he added.

Kosovo has been negotiating with Serbia for ten years in a European Union-facilitated dialogue process intended to normalise relations, but no progress has been made on the issue of missing persons.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic declared last year that Belgrade would open up its military archives as long as Pristina reciprocated by opening the Kosovo Liberation Army’s wartime files.

But Kosovo officials have argued that the Kosovo Liberation Army did not have such archives because it was a guerrilla force and Kosovo was not a state at the time.

Five mass graves have been found in Serbia since the fall of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, a little over a year after NATO forced him to withdraw from Kosovo. The remains of more than 900 Kosovo Albanians have been found, but no one in Serbia has been held responsible for the systematic effort to conceal evidence of war crimes.

Also on Monday, the International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP, which has played a major role in helping to find those who disappeared during the 1990s wars in the Balkans, published a practical guide for families of the missing who are still searching for their loved ones.

“The guide explains practices and principles applied in the countries of the former Yugoslavia in their efforts to account for persons missing as a result of the 1990s conflict. It is the product of many years of first-hand experience on the part of ICMP staff, and intensive communication with families of the missing, scientists, scholars, researchers and professionals from domestic institutions,” the ICMP said.

The ICMP noted that 40,000 people went missing during the 1990s wars, but so far, more than 70 per cent of them have been located.

“Kurti, Osmani won’t enter into talks before Serbia returns our loved ones” (ATV)

Nysrete Kumnova, leader of the Mothers’ Call, a missing persons NGO, said in an interview with ATV on Monday that she does not believe “Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani will enter into talks with Serbia before it returns our loved ones”. She said she hopes Kurti and Osmani will do their best to pressure Serbia into opening the war archives and reveal the locations of sites where the missing persons are buried.

Hoti: Kosovo to be ready; dialogue must end with mutual recognition (media)

Avdullah Hoti, former Prime Minister of Kosovo, said in a Facebook post on Monday that he welcomes the appointment of Gabriel Escobar as United States Envoy for the Western Balkans, “as this shows the commitment of the Biden administration to the region and to the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia”. “Kosovo needs to be ready for the dialogue, which must end with mutual recognition,” Hoti said.