Kosovo

Kosovo opposition parties have verbally accepted an offer from PM Albin Kurti to ‘join’ in preparing for new parliamentary elections – reminding him that the opposition has been seeking new elections for some time. 

A senior U.S. official on Tuesday said he would be visiting Kosovo in the next days to put "back on track" talks on normalizing ties between Kosovo and Serbia, after tensions escalated over Kosovo's decision to ban the use of the Serbian dinar.

After Kosovo's Central Electoral Commission set April 21 as the date for a vote on the removal of four mayors of municipalities in the north, the EU welcomed the decision and said it would assist the process.

Trust building, not unilateral actions, are the linchpin in forging a peaceful path forward for Belgrade and Pristina, the UN’s top official in Kosovo told the Security Council on Thursday, as the body called an urgent meeting at Serbia’s request to debate new banking regulations that have triggered fresh tensions.

The EU and US have called on Kosovo to halt ‘unilateral’ actions, urging that issues such as euro becoming the sole official currency and the closure of Serbia-run 'parallel' structures to be resolved within the EU-mediated dialogue.

After a month of hearings at the trial of Kosovo’s ex-President Hashim Thaci in The Hague that have mainly been closed to the public, experts warned that this will boost suspicions about the war crimes court back in Kosovo.

Local and international media organisations called on Kosovo’s government on Thursday to withdraw the draft law on the Independent Media Commission, IMC, and stop attempting to put online media “under control”.

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have begun signing a petition to dismiss Albanian mayors in two of the four Serb-majority cities who were elected in snap polls last year amid a boycott of the vote by local Serbs.

As Albin Kurti’s mandate as Prime Minister enters its final year, his cabinet is under pressure to start delivering on concrete problems, as dissatisfaction from several quarters mounts.

One year after a bomb attack on election commission offices in the North, the Kosovo Prosecution has indicted four people on terrorism charges.