In December of 2020, following preparatory activities, NGO Aktiv and PeaceNexus (PN) signed a partnership agreement on strengthening NGO AKTIV’s organizational capacity to mainstream conflict sensitivity in its strategy and programming. Through this process, NGO Aktiv seeks to strengthen its ability to navigate effectively its complex socio-political environment; take concrete steps to avoid inadvertently contributing to increase(s) in social and/or ethnic tension and use its programming to systematically foster greater social cohesion.

"If we look into the matter in an abstract manner, we see a professional murder that is left to an amateur investigation”, said journalist and former Director of Radio Belgrade Milivoje Mihajlović, talking about the assassination of Oliver Ivanović.  Oliver’s nephew Aleksandar Ivanović emphasized that there was a dark when it came to the investigation in Belgrade. “The only thing we have are the legal proceedings led in Pristina, which are rather unfortunate”. 

While the authorities in Priština and Belgrade continue with the rhetoric of whether or not there will be mutual recognition, messages coming from the European union suggest that ‘’dialogue will be given the time needed and will not be accelerated artificially but there should not be unnecessary delays either’’. What could be expected from Brussels, that is, what kind of policy towards the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia can be expected from the EU in the next year, in which Kosovo will have early parliamentary elections?    

One of the most stable findings of the Trend Analysis for the past few years has been the distrust of Kosovo Serbs towards political leaders in Kosovo. Similar to previous years, about 58.7% of respondents from the Serb community in Kosovo claim that they do not trust the people who represent them. When asked to identify political party options or leaders from the Serb community they trust, 87% of respondents did not single out any name on the list as trustworthy. Respondents expressed even less confidence when it came to the political representatives from the Albanian community in Kosovo. Only 1.5% of them cited one of the Albanian leaders as a trusted politician, a percentage which borders with statistical error. Widespread lack of trust of the Kosovo Serbs in political representatives and institutions is one of the main findings of the research “Trend Analysis 2020: Attitudes of the Serb Community in Kosovo”. The research was presented at the same-titled conference, held on 16 December via Zoom platform. 

In the third episode of the Promaja series we tried to get an answer from the institutions to the question of what activities have been undertaken since the beginning of the pandemic in order to protect the right to use the mother tongue, but also other rights guaranteed by law concerning non-majority communities.

Nearly half of respondents from the Serb community do not see themselves in Kosovo or plan to leave should the opportunity arise. Almost 70% of respondents aged between 18 and 20 showed a desire to leave Kosovo. These are just some of the results of the Trend Analysis 2020: Attitudes of the Serb Community in Kosovo research that was presented at a conference that was held on the 16^th of December via the Zoom platform.

The Brussels dialogue process started with the goal of “solving the technical problems of citizens,” and today, after more than eight years of negotiations and delays in negotiations, “normalization of relations” will occur, as a political goal of a comprehensive agreement between Pristina and Belgrade. What is actually hidden behind the term “normalization” and how do the negotiators themselves look at it, and how does the international community mediate in the negotiations?