Authorities in Kosovo consider that there are great chances that the Presidential elections in Serbia this spring would affect not only Kosovo Serbs but also the process of the political dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

Officials of the government of Kosovo claim that election campaigns and incentive statements in Serbia “always affected Kosovo.”

Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said in Zagreb that the Kosovo government is committed to setting up a community of municipalities with Serbian majority (ZSO) but the mere fact that Serb political representatives did not come to the two meetings, shows that Belgrade has no political will for that to happen.

Ramush Haradinaj, the detained leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), told Radio Free Europe today that he might return to Kosovo next week as the court proceedings against him are expected to be concluded by mid next week. He said the accusations against him by Belgrade authorities are “a political game on the eve of elections”. “This is a mindset from times of war that has returned to Belgrade and it correlates with the upcoming elections there. This however does not mean that all of the Balkans and Albanians should submit to this mindset.

The leading British commentator on international affairs in general and Russia in particular, and former Moscow correspondent for The Times,  Mary Dejevsky, told Radio Free Europe in Albanian that a solution between the West and Russia could be reached through an eventual agreement for “recognition of Russian authority over Crimea as an exchange for Russia’s recognition of Kosovo.”

Thousands of people gathered in Pristina on January 21 in a demonstration calling for France to release Kosovo's former prime minister -- who was being held there on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia.

Former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, a Kosovo Albanian wartime guerrilla commander, was arrested in Paris on January 4 under the international warrant.

http://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-protest-france-release-haradinaj/28248849.html

Soren Jessen-Petersen, former United Nations chief administrator in Kosovo, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe, that Kosovo’s leadership is out of touch and that Kosovo needs a “new generation of political leaders, because the current leaders are not showing any vision apart from their insistence to remain in power”.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen, 2016 was a year full of developments in Kosovo. What do you consider were the achievements and the setbacks?

President of the Serbian List Slavko Simić says that conditions are not yet matured enough for the return of the MPs and ministers to the Kosovo institutions, although there is a will and that they are waiting the creation of normal conditions to do so.

Simić said this for Radio Free Europe (RFE), adding that the Kosovo Assembly and the government have no sufficient legitimacy, if representatives of the Serbian community do not participate.

There is no timeline yet on when the Kosovo-Serbia agreement on license plates will start being implemented, Radio Free Europe reports. Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told the news agency that the November 15 deadline for implementing the agreement has passed but that this is a result of administrative delays by Kosovo’s institutions. “Delays are coming from our side, because of ongoing administrative procedures … the Serbian side meanwhile is ready.

The inability of the ruling coalition to conclude issues such as the border demarcation with Montenegro – a requirement for visa liberalisation – and delays in meeting certain obligations from dialogue with Serbia and the inability to form the Armed Forces could take Kosovo to early elections next spring. Kosovo Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, who is also the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, is opposing the idea of early elections.

Edita Tahiri, Kosovo’s Minister without portfolio engaged in the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels, told Radio Free Europe today that due to the administrative delays, Kosovo authorities did not manage to start with the implementation of the agreement for full reciprocity on the license plates between Kosovo and Serbia and remove the so-called “proba” license plates which were implemented unilaterally by the Serbian party since 2011. According to her, today is the due date for implementation of the agreement. “It did not start yet.