Government of Kosovo

Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Thursday that he has sent a proposal to France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the statute of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo - a move that was not well-received by the Pristina authorities.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti's strategy to install ethnic Albanian mayors in Serb-majority municipalities in the volatile north despite US and EU objections is causing consequences that aren't good for Kosovo, analysts say.

BRUSSELS/BELGRADE - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said on Wednesday violence was never acceptable and that a political solution to the current crisis in the north of Kosovo-Metohija was "urgently needed".

It has been 13 days since the raid of special police units on the premises of the municipalities of Zvean, Zubin Potok and Leposavi, and today is the tenth day of protest by the residents of Zvean who want the special units to withdraw from the north of Kosovo and for the workers of the municipality to be allowed to return to their workplaces.

The deadline that the US and the EU set for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti expires today, and Washington's special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said that if Kurti does not accept three conditions for calming the situation in the north of Kosovo, then it means that he does not want cooperation with the EU and the US and that it cannot go without consequences.

I was stunned by this verbal bombshell.

Serbian 'carte blanche'

The Committee for Political and Security Affairs of the Council of the European Union made a decision to extend the mandate of the EU Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) until June 14, 2025.
The decision stated that the financial amount intended to cover EULEX costs from June 15, 2023 to June 14, 2025 will amount to more than 165 million euros.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak and US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel Escobar on Tuesday evening to discuss the situation in Kosovo-Metohija.

He also said that the only question is whether Kosovo wants to wait for Euro-Atlantic integration until Prime Minister Albin Kurti fulfills his obligation. Escobar emphasized that "Kosovo must now move as a matter of urgency", and indicated that the establishment of the CSM is an international, legal, undertaken obligation.

The EU special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajak, said tonight that he and the US special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, asked the prime minister of the temporary institutions of Pristina, Albin Kurti, to calm down the situation in northern Kosovo, hold new elections and return to dialogue.