• Kurti says management team for Association completed its function (media)
• Lajcak: First draft not final, an important starting point for discussions (media)
• Petkovic: Management team mandate team lasts until Association formed (media)
• Kurti presents formation of Kosovo’s Sovereign Fund (Kallxo)
• Osmani meets Steinmeier, updates him on dialogue (media)
• Explosion near police station in north of Kosovo (media)
• Serbia and Kosovo: the west’s ill-fated push to heal the divide (Financial Times)
• Kosovo Ambassador to Brussels publishes list of Serbia’s violations of agreement (media)
• Kosovo Civil Society and Media Form Coalition Against Disinformation (BIRN)
• German company contracted by Kosovo to supply passports suspected of irregularities (BIRN)
• Mirëdita, Dobar Dan Festival in Prishtina Opens With Tribute to Belgrade School Victims (Prishtina Insight)

Kurti says management team for Association completed its function (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Sunday that the management team that proposed a draft statute for the Association of Serb-majority municipalities has completed its function and said everything it had to say on May 2 in Brussels. He argued that therefore relieving the team from duty was a natural and logical process.

Kurti said that he was not satisfied with what the management team presented in Brussels because behind their presentation hid what he called great desire to form a Republika Srpska in Kosovo, which he said would not be allowed.

“We patiently and closely listened to the management team and it was a request from our European and American partners to listen to the presentation of the management team. We were not pleased with the fact that this management team did not meet first with the Minister for Local Government, Elbert Krasniqi, who comes from a non-majority community, although they were invited to a meeting on April 18. We went to Brussels and listened to the presentation of the draft statute. There were two ladies from the four-member team and presented to us 6-7 articles. After a 10–15-minute break, we saw that in those articles there was a great desire to form a Republika Srpska in Kosovo, therefore, when discussions started, we expressed our fundamental disagreement with the draft statute,” Kurti said.

Kurti also said that he gave a proposal on how to regulate Article 7 of the agreement on normalisation which talks about the self-management of the Serb community, and Article 10 for all previous agreements. He said that the facilitators did not give an assessment about his proposal, and that the Serbian side did not even read it.

Kurti said that Article 7 is inspired by Croatia’s model for the Serb minority. He said that Serbia accepted this model in Croatia, and that there is no reason why it should not accept in Kosovo too. “I am not interested to control the Serbs or to violate their rights, nor the rights of any minority or citizen of the republic. In particular about Article 7 of the Basic Agreement, I offered a draft vision which I hope will be evaluated by the European facilitators,” he added.

Kurti also said that another meeting with the dialogue facilitators is expected this month. “The next steps I believe will include a meeting with the facilitators. I believe this will happen this month. After this meeting, we will be able to see what the next steps forward will be and these steps will be only for the implementation and the sequencing of the implementation,” he said.

Lajcak: First draft not final, an important starting point for discussions (media)

EU Special Representative for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that “the biggest event of the week was undoubtedly the High-Level Dialogue meeting hosted by EU HR/VP and assisted by me, which took place last Tuesday. President Vucic and Prime Minister Kurti met in Brussels to discuss a crucial issue of missing persons”.

“I am delighted that both leaders agreed to work together to clarify the whereabouts of the people who went missing during the war. We welcome the Parties' endorsement of the declaration on Missing Persons and expect that they will make progress on bringing closure to the outstanding cases of missing persons. This will not only help their families find peace but also advance the normalization between Kosovo and Serbia,” Lajcak said.

Lajcak also added that “the Parties also took an important and symbolic step towards the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. Although the first draft presented by the management team is not final, it is an important starting point for the upcoming discussions on the Chief Negotiators' level.”

Petkovic: Management team mandate team lasts until Association formed (media)

Head of the Serbian Government’s office for Kosovo, Petar Petkovic, said on Sunday that the mandate of the Management Team for drafting the statute of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities lasts until the final formation of the association. He argued that there is no legal basis for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to dismiss the management team.

“The fact that he doesn’t like the draft statute of the Association is his personal problem, because the mandate of the existing Management Team is active and valid, confirmed on several occasions by the representative of the European Union and also by the EU High Representative Josep Borrell,” Petkovic said. “Therefore, before Kurti disputes the functioning of the Management Team, he should read again the statement by EU spokesperson, Peter Stano, that the management team cannot be replaced unilaterally, because they are part of the process of dialogue and for them the composition of the team is still valid.”

Kurti presents formation of Kosovo’s Sovereign Fund (Kallxo)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, in cooperation with Friederich Ebert Stiftung, presented on Sunday in Pristina the formation of Kosovo’s Sovereign Fund. Kurti told a conference that after the draft law passed public consultations, the government is one step closer to its formation. “Our government stands strongly behind his vision and believes that this initiative will result in the stabilizing the economy for diversity, create profit for the state through smart investments and generate wealth for future generations,” he said.

Kurti said that public enterprises will become an integral part of the Fund with the aim of increasing opportunities for economic development. “In the last two years, we have empowered the boards of enterprises through the private sector, we have revived the enterprises and given them back to the citizens. Trepca [mining complex] has increased its income from 15 to 22 million euros. Despite challenges, KEK in 2022 has implemented its production plan by 97.6 percent, and it has reduced operational expenditures,” he said.

The news website notes that in March this year a draft of the bill on the Sovereign Fund was prepared. Kurti had pledged that the Fund would replace the Privatisation Agency of Kosovo by taking under its management the enterprises that are currently managed by the agency.

Osmani meets Steinmeier, updates him on dialogue (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the coronation of King Charles III. “Great to catch up with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the King’s #Coronation. Updated the President on the dialogue, and thanked him for Germany's support for Kosovo's Euro-Atlantic integration,” Osmani wrote on Twitter.

Explosion near police station in north of Kosovo (media)

Several news websites reported over the weekend that an explosion near a Kosovo Police station in the north of Kosovo happened on Saturday morning around 03:00. Police spokesperson for the north region, Veton Elshani, confirmed the information to Klan Kosova saying that a vehicle and an electric pole were damaged.

Chief of Staff to Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Blerim Vela, wrote in a Twitter post: “another criminal attack in North Mitrovica. The criminal and illegal structures funded by Serbia are obstructing the rule of law in northern Kosovo. This seems to be a reaction to Kosovo institutions’ action to remove illegal surveillance cameras installed by Serbia, which will continue”.

Serbia and Kosovo: the west’s ill-fated push to heal the divide (Financial Times)

Veteran Balkan politicians know better than to be enthusiastic about deals made under pressure in diplomatic back rooms. But the events of March 18 gave Visar Ymeri, a former leader of Kosovo’s ruling party, reason to be optimistic.

“We have a deal,” the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said as he wrapped up a marathon summit in Ohrid, North Macedonia. “Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on the . . . normalisation of relations.”

Ymeri was overjoyed, he recalls over coffee in a swanky new shopping mall in Pristina. Such a deal had been decades in the making, and might see Serbia finally recognise his homeland as a sovereign nation — a goal Kosovo had sought since its ethnic Albanian leaders declared it a republic more than three decades ago, sparking years of conflict and tensions.

That recognition would open the floodgates of investment, sorely needed in one of Europe’s poorest corners. But more importantly, it would pave the way for Kosovo, Serbia, and the rest of the western Balkans to join Euro-Atlantic alliances such as the EU and Nato, stabilising the entire volatile region at a crucial moment.

Read more at: https://on.ft.com/44C9dnx

Kosovo Ambassador to Brussels publishes list of Serbia’s violations of agreement (media)

Kosovo’s Ambassador to Brussels, Agron Bajrami, took to Twitter to publish a list of Serbia’s violations of the Ohrid agreement on the normalisation of relations with Kosovo. According to Bajrami, Serbia started making the violations immediately after the Basic Agreement was finalised.

See the list at: https://bit.ly/42whRlV

Kosovo Civil Society and Media Form Coalition Against Disinformation (BIRN)

BIRN Kosovo and six other Kosovo-based NGOs and media organisations have formed the Kosovo Anti-Disinformation Coalition, it was announced on Friday.

“The coalition aims to advocate for and support awareness raising and capacity building in Kosovo society in order to face the challenges of disinformation and build a society in which accurate, full, and timely information is the foundation of information,” their joint statement read.

The organisations participating in the coalition alongside BIRN are the NGOs Democracy Plus, Democracy for Development and Roma in Action, Internews Kosova and the Serbian-language media in Kosovo, KoSSev and Gracanica Online.

BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra said the coalition’s goal is to “function as a vaccine against the disinformation virus and the untrue propaganda that is shared very quickly in many information channels that exist today, including social media networks”.

Xharra added: “We decided to become strategic and create alliances with other civil society and media organisations which have worked in this field. We are started today with seven members but we aim to include new members in future.”

She explained that the members have worked together to create the coalition’s principles in the war against disinformation in order to “to make this alliance functional in all the territory of Kosovo including the many languages of Kosovo, not only the language of the majority”.

Alongside the two main ethnic communities of Albanians and Serbs, Kosovo’s constitution recognises Romani, Egyptian, Ashkali, and Turkish communities. Serbian and Albanian are official languages, but in certain towns Romani and Turkish are widely spoken.

“If those who distribute disinformation are organised, we, on the other hand, must become organised and strategic to stop disinformation, and this is not done alone but together around good information,” Xharra said.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/42d56gb

German company contracted by Kosovo to supply passports suspected of irregularities (BIRN)

A German company contracted by Kosovo’s Interior Ministry to supply IDs and passports is suspected of manipulating invoices and evading customs duties – but still holds the contract.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Interior contracted a German company in December 2022 to supply materials for passports, identity cards and driver's licenses despite it already having issues with Kosovo law.

The contract was signed on December 27, 2022, with Veridos GMBH, after several months of failure by Kosovo authorities to supply citizens with travel documents, IDs and driver’s licences. It was made via a negotiated procedure.

However, BIRN has found out that several months earlier, in August 2022, the Pristina Basic Prosecution filed an indictment against the company for attempting to evade customs duties on 25,000 passports.

Kosovo Customs also determined that the company had increased the cost of recent imports of passports and identity cards.

Despite these issues, the company still has an ongoing contract with the Kosovo ministry, which claims it did not have any information on these alleged irregularities.

Nora Fetoshi, adviser to Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla, told BIRN that the ministry had no information about this, adding that it was informed only that the company would import sensitive materials from Greece.

Discrepancies in cost of documents

The company contracted to supply different types of ID inflated the cost of a recent shipment, Kosovo Customs told BIRN.

Customs told BIRN that on March 31, the company told customs clearance that a cargo of identity cards and passports was worth 1,026,776.76 euros.

Customs officials determined that the shipment’s real value was about half of that figure.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3VR7G9z

Mirëdita, Dobar Dan Festival in Prishtina Opens With Tribute to Belgrade School Victims (Prishtina Insight)

The 10^th edition of the ‘Mirëdita, dobar dan!’ festival, held this year in Kosovo on Thursday, opened with a minute’s silence in honor of the victims of the school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday.

The 10th edition of the “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival has brought artists, writers, journalists and changemakers to Kosovo for three days, on May 4, 5 and 6,  through which Albanians and Serbs can create bridges through art.

The opening of the festival began with a minute’s silence and ended with the lighting of candles in honour of the victims of Wednesday’s attack on a school in Belgrade that left eight children and a school guard dead.

The 13-year-old killer, Kosta Kecmanović, was a pupil at the school and may have plotted the attack for a month, Belgrade police reported.

During this year’s edition of this festival, various activities will be held, such as film screenings, book promotions, concerts and debates that focus on relations between the two peoples.

Kushtrim Koliqi, director of the NGO Integra, said that despite the current bad relations between Kosovo and Serbia, the Mirëdita, dobar dan! festival is continuing its journey with the aim of creating new connections between the two countries in culture, media and civil society.

“We understand that there are deep-rooted political and historical issues that continue to create divisions between our societies, but we believe that cultural exchange and cooperation can be a powerful tool for promoting reconciliation and creating a peaceful future,” Koliqi said.

Sofia Todorovic, director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia, an NGO, said Wednesday’s tragedy should serve to remind everyone of important values.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/44E5QfZ