European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo

In North Mitrovica, the newly elected mayor Erden Ati was sworn in today, they told Kosovo Online from EULEX, stressing that their forces are on alert 24 hours a day and are ready to react quickly.

However, it does not have the possibility to "force" Kosovo to do it, it follows from the answer of the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to the parliamentary question "what will be done regarding Kosovo's refusal to form the CSMs".

EULEX has insisted that the financial settlement agreed by its former prosecutor turned whistleblower Maria Bamieh with the UK government does not have anything to do with the European rule-of-law mission in Kosovo because Bamieh's corruption allegations against EULEX were dismissed four years ago.

Ljubljana – Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu will be in Slovenia on Monday and Tuesday, discussing her country’s expectations about joining the EU and NATO, dialogue between Belgrade and Prishtina, and the situation in the Western Balkans.

The end of 2017 was also the end of Malcolm Simmons' career as an international judge in the Balkans.

A Serbian citizen, named only as D.A., was arrested in Kosovo on Wednesday on suspicion of having committed war crimes against civilians during the Kosovo war, the Kosovo Special Prosecution announced on Thursday.

Police said suspect was arrested on Wednesday at the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Jarinje and taken into custody on a court order.

Drivers crossing the Kosovo-Serbia border on Monday started covering the state symbols on their vehicles' license plates in accordance with an agreement reached in Brussels last week.

This is a temporary solution to the license plates dispute between the two countries which saw the roads to two border crossings blocked by Kosovo Serbs for almost two weeks.

Back from the Brink

EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, Police officers patrol the area near the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Jarinje, Kosovo, September 28, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

First, let me say that before judge Simmons was elevated to the presidency of the Assembly of Judges, he was also serving in the same capacity as an international criminal judge from the United Kingdom. I sat with him on the trial panel in a murder case in Prizren in 2011, and found his participation to be highly professional.

The lawyer for murdered political party leader Oliver Ivanovic said on Tuesday that allegations made by Malcolm Simmons, former head judge at the EU's rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, showed that the war crimes prosecution of the Kosovo Serb politician was a "fabricated court case".