• Borrell: Any attempt to question the agreement is futile (media)
• U.S. expects agreement to pave way to recognition by 5 EU members (Koha)
• Kosovo will implement measures agreed on with Serbia, PM says (Reuters)
• If Association with executive powers becomes mandatory, Kosovo faces new elections, Assembly Speaker says (Prishtina Insight)
• Kurti: SL decision not to take part in elections, sign of Belgrade control (media)
• Von Cramon calls on Serbian List to take part in elections (RFE)
• Vela: Serbia is violating the agreement, sanctions should follow (Albanian Post)
• Hill: Talks for a Kurti-Vucic meeting to explain several things (media)
• U.S. Ambassador to EU meets Kosovo Ambassador to Brussels (media)
• Osmani: NATO membership, one of main objectives (Albanian Daily News)
• Kosovo and Serbia must keep their promise on missing persons (BIRN)
• In Serbia, cooperation with Kosovo scientists can bring threats of violence (BIRN)
• Hovenier: Kosovo remains a champion of Religious Freedom (media)
• Kosovo dervishes welcome spring with centuries-old mystical practices (RFE)

Borrell: Any attempt to question the agreement is futile (media)

European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Thursday that any attempt to question the Ohrid agreement on normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia is futile. “The agreement was agreed, it has to be implemented, and there is no room for picking and choosing. It is a whole, it has to be implemented by all parts, in a holistic way, and we will follow closely who is implementing and who is not implementing. I would advise them not to point to anyone, but [to] do their work,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels.

U.S. expects agreement to pave way to recognition by 5 EU members (Koha)

Senior U.S. officials have commended Kosovo on reaching the agreement with Serbia and have called for its implementation without delay. Counselor to the State Department, Derek Chollet, said on Thursday that with the agreement, Kosovo is closer than ever to its European future. “Congratulated Prime Minister Albin Kurti today on the agreement reached in Ohrid, North Macedonia, on normalization of relations with Serbia through the EU-Facilitated Dialogue. Kosovo now closer than ever to its EU future,” Chollet tweeted after a conversation with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The latter too took to Twitter to say: “Had a call w/@CounselorDOS Chollet who congratulated me on the Agreement reached in Ohër/Ohrid, acknowledging the long and difficult talks. I thanked him for the US support and role. The Basic Agreement and the Annex, as stated in text and spirit, must now change the ground reality and terms.”

In another post on Twitter, Chollet thanked Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic “for constructive engagement in Ohrid. Important to take immediate steps to implement and set firm path toward normalization and EU integration.”

U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, commented on the Ohrid agreement on Thursday, saying that if implemented it would move the five EU non-recognising member states towards recognising Kosovo.

Kosovo will implement measures agreed on with Serbia, PM says (Reuters)

Kosovo will respect its international obligations and implement the measures agreed last week as part of a deal aimed at normalising relations with Serbia, Prime Minister Albin Kurti told lawmakers on Thursday.

Last Saturday, Pristina and Belgrade verbally agreed to implement a Western-backed plan on how to improve ties in the wake of a war in the late 1990s and decades of tense relations. Normalising relations is a condition both Balkan countries must meet to speed up their path to joining the European Union.

"If we want to be treated as a state and be recognised as such, I cannot avoid the obligations from the international treaties that we have agreed," Kurti told lawmakers as he explained the plan in parliament for the first time.

"I am convinced that it was impossible to reach any better text of the agreement in the situation we are in."

Read more at: https://reut.rs/3LNxb8p

If Association with executive powers becomes mandatory, Kosovo faces new elections, Assembly Speaker says (Prishtina Insight)

The Speaker of the Parliament of Kosovo, Glauk Konjufca, stated that Kosovo has received strong guarantees that the Association will not become a third level of power; but, if the opposite happens, the country will go to snap elections.

The speaker of the Parliament Glauk Konjufca declared in a televised interview on Wednesday, that Kosovo has received strong international guarantees that no third level of power will be created with the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority. Also, it has been made clear that the red lines of constitutional performance will not be affected.

Konjufca emphasized that the request for an Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority, apart from the fact that it is foreseen by the 2013 agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, it is a request of the latter, and not a request of the Serbian community in Kosovo.

“We have received strong guarantees that the Association will be a kind of forum. But, if it is required to have executive powers or constitutional changes are brought forth as a result, I think that nothing will matter anymore and the country should go to elections”, he underlined.

Konjufca added that the Government as well as the opposition have already strongly and openly opposed an Association with executive powers.

Article 7 of the Implementation annex agreed in Ohrid between the two countries on March 19 states: ‘Kosovo launches immediate negotiations within the EU-facilitated Dialogue on establishing specific arrangements and guarantees to ensure an appropriate level of self-management for the Serbian community in Kosovo, in compliance with relevant previous Dialogue agreements as determined by the EU Facilitator’.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3FOoxTD

Kurti: SL decision not to take part in elections, sign of Belgrade’s control (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti argued on Thursday that the decision of the Serbian List not to take part in the elections in the four northern municipalities in April is a clear sign of Belgrade’s control over the party. “The Serbian List refused to participate in local elections in 4 northern municipalities of Kosovo this April. This is a clear sign of Belgrade’s control over the party & nonstop interference in Kosovo’s domestic affairs. The EU must condemn this prompt violation of the Basic Agreement,” Kurti tweeted.

Von Cramon calls on Serbian List to take part in elections (RFE)

European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Kosovo, Viola von Cramon, called on the Serbian List – the biggest political party of Kosovo Serbs – to take part in the mayoral elections in the four northern municipalities.

“We deeply regret the Serbian List refusal to take part in the elections in the north of Kosovo and urge to submit its electoral list without delay. Appeal to all relevant actors in Serbia and Kosovo to demonstrate commitment to the Agreement of 27 February & Annex in both words and action,” von Cramon tweeted.

Vela: Serbia is violating the agreement, sanctions should follow (Albanian Post)

Blerim Vela, Chief of Staff to Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, argued that Serbia should be sanctioned for failing to respect the implementation plan of the agreement on normalization. Vela wrote on Twitter: “Serbia’s foreign minister [Ivica] Dacic, as his boss [Serbian president Aleksandar] Vucic, acts in bad faith and violates the agreed implementation plan. He said that Serbia won’t implement other articles of the agreement with Kosovo unless ASM [Association of Serb Municipalities] is formed. It’s clear that Serbia is sabotaging the agreement with Kosovo. Sanctions should follow”. The news website notes that Vela’s reaction came after Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that Serbia is clear in its position that until the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities is formed there will be no further steps in the implementation of the agreement for normalisation.

Hill: Talks for a Kurti-Vucic meeting to explain several things (media)

U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, said on Thursday that the Association of Serb-majority municipalities is part of the dialogue since 2013 and that “it needs to be formed so that the Serb community, mainly in Mitrovica North, can see what its future will be. I think that now there are looking into many models that are in compliance with European standards”.

In an interview with Pink, Hill was asked if the timeline to form the Association is the period before or after the local elections in the four northern municipalities. “I cannot talk about such short timelines,” he said, adding that the U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, “mentioned several longer timelines and that everything can be concluded by the end of 2023”. “I think we need to try to move forward fast in order to ensure that the interests of the Serb community in Kosovo are respected,” he said.

Hill also said that there are talks to organise a new meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and that it would be an opportunity to explain several things.

U.S. Ambassador to EU meets Kosovo Ambassador to Brussels (media)

U.S. Ambassador to the European, Mark Gitenstein, said in a Twitter post on Thursday that he met with Kosovo’s Ambassador to Brussels Agron Bajrami and “congratulated Kosovo on a step forward to normalise relations with Serbia”. “I reiterated the importance for Kosovo to implement the agreement and advance on its EU path,” he tweeted.

Osmani: NATO membership, one of main objectives (Albanian Daily News)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani hosted in a meeting the outgoing director of the NATO advisory and liaison team, Brigadier General Joachim Hoppe and the future director of NALT, Brigadier General Ralf Peter Hammerstein. As announced through a press release, Osmani discussed a range of topics with the two brigadier generals, focusing on the importance of maximizing all efforts for the development, training and deployment of KSF missions abroad in accordance with NATO standards, with the ultimate goal of membership in this organization.

A press release issued by Osmani’s office notes that the meeting focused on a range of topics, “the importance of maximizing all efforts for the development, training and deployment of KSF missions abroad in accordance with NATO standards, and with the ultimate goal of membership in this organization. This objective remains the main strategic priority of foreign policy and national security for Kosovo in cooperation with international partners. The President used the opportunity to express her appreciation for the important support and development assistance provided by NALT, within the framework of its mission and mandate. President Osmani emphasized that the support provided by the NALT team has been important to help Kosovo achieve significant progress towards its goal of membership in NATO”.

Kosovo and Serbia must keep their promise on missing persons (BIRN)

Opinion piece by Nina Kaufmann.

Kosovo and Serbia’s leaders must act urgently on their verbal agreement last weekend to address the issue of finding the remaining missing persons from the 1998-99 war while their ageing relatives are still alive.

As part of their verbal agreement to normalise relations in Ohrid in North Macedonia last weekend, Kosovo and Serbia’s leaders agreed to endorse a declaration on missing persons, aimed at helping to locate the bodies of the remaining 1,600 people who went missing in 1998-99, as a matter of urgency.

It is high time that both countries’ leaderships lay their political disagreements aside and cooperate in this humanitarian issue, independent from their performance on other parts of the agreement – before it is too late.

Finding missing persons was listed as a priority in the EU-facilitated Pristina-Belgrade dialogue years ago, but the process has largely been obstructed by political disagreements.

The decision to, once again, declare the issue a matter of urgency does not have to be an empty promise, but rather offers a window of opportunity to finally move forward towards resolving the fate of missing persons and giving their families answers about what happened to them during the war.

As time passes since the war, the hope of resolving such cases has faded for many families. Much could have been done much earlier in terms of cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia to make progress.

However, it is not yet too late. As forensic experts have pointed out, it is impossible to resolve all the remaining cases due to the nature of the disappearances during the war. There is nevertheless great confidence that the current number can be significantly lowered, as my research on missing persons from the Kosovo conflict has showed.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3z4cqhk

In Serbia, cooperation with Kosovo scientists can bring threats of violence (BIRN)

A Serbian academic says she won’t be intimidated after being branded a “traitor” for conducting academic research with counterparts in Kosovo.

Aweek ago, Jelena Loncar, was due to address an event in the Faculty of Political Sciences of Belgrade University, where she works as an assistant professor.

The event was titled Academic Exchanges between Kosovo and Serbia, and was supposed to present the results of a research exchange between Loncar’s faculty and the Faculty of Philosophy in Pristina.

The presentation, however, never happened; instead, posters were plastered at the entrance to the faculty featuring photos of Loncar and two of her colleagues, who were also due to speak at the event, and the word ‘TRAITOR’, written in red in capital letters.

Next to Loncar’s face was the emblem of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla army that fought Serbian security forces in the late 1990s to end a decade of repression in Kosovo under then strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbian tabloids had already accused the faculty of effectively recognising Kosovo, but Loncar, 37, said the posters left her “honestly shocked.”

“I’d never have thought it could go that far,” she told BIRN.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3JHGtQN

Hovenier: Kosovo remains a champion of Religious Freedom (media)

“Honored to join the US Embassy Pristina family for an Iftar Dinner in observance of the holy month of Ramadan. Kosovo remains a champion of Religious Freedom, one of many important values our two countries share,” United States Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, wrote in a Twitter post on Thursday.

Kosovo dervishes welcome spring with centuries-old mystical practices (RFE)

Considered a mystic sect by fellow Muslims in Kosovo and Albania, dozens of Sufi Dervishes from the Kadiri order celebrated the centuries-old traditions of the spring equinox, known to them as Sultan Nevruz on March 22.

See more at: https://bit.ly/408ob26