NEW KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER ROARS OUT OF THE GATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000242

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/17/2016
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: NEW KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER ROARS OUT OF THE GATE

REF: PRISTINA 229

Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY. In two meetings this week, COM found new
Kosovo Prime Minister Ceku already deeply immersed in policy
and quickly getting up to speed on economic issues that
demand rapid resolution. He has gained the attention of his
cabinet by announcing that the tenures of all ministers will
be subject to his personal review every 90 days. COM advised
the PM to focus particular attention on a finite number of
portfolios -- property rights, interethnic crime,
decentralization, outreach to Kosovo Serbs -- with potential
to move the final status process forward. SRSG
Jessen-Petersen called COM after his first substantive
meeting with Ceku to rave about the new PM's cooperative
approach on difficult issues such as the staging of a tender
to name a second mobile phone operator for Kosovo. END
SUMMARY.


2. (C) In March 13 and March 16 meetings, COM and E/P chief
found new Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku appreciative of the
task before him but already tackling it with discipline.
After his swearing in on March 10 (reftel),the primary
members of the governing coalition (the Democratic League of
Kosovo and Ceku's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo)
announced that Ceku would have the political authority --
complementing the Constitutional Framework's grant of legal
authority -- to replace at will any minister in the
government regardless of party affiliation. Ceku thereupon
announced that he would personally review the performance of
each minister at 90-day intervals and would not hesitate to
replace underperforming cabinet members. COM told Ceku that,
judging from the number of urgent requests for assistance
USAID has received in recent days from ministries, the
message that ministers are on probation seems to have
registered.


3. (C) To Ceku's concern that he and his small staff have
much to learn quickly, COM said the USG is ready to provide
technical staff as we have for his predecessors but also
advised Ceku to not try to do everything but rather to focus
attention on an achievable number of goals. COM urged Ceku
in this regard to consult with his Kosovo Albanian final
status negotiating team colleagues regarding the
recommendations of U.S. final status Special Representative
Frank Wisner. Ambassador Wisner, COM said, had recommended
that Kosovo Albanian leaders focus on making progress on
property rights cases (especially those involving the Serbian
Orthodox Church),prosecution of interethnic crimes, outreach
to the Kosovo Serb community, and decentralization. Ceku was
in complete agreement with COM's proposal and said he
expected that final status-related issues would come to
increasingly occupy his time in the immediate aftermath of
the March 17 Vienna meeting on decentralization.


4. (C) Ceku wanted to discuss two economic issues in
particular -- telecommunications and energy. He said that he
had already been approached by representatives of the Mobikos
consortium, ostensible winners of a 2004 mobile phone license
tender that has been voided by UNMIK, and that "the pressure
is building." He said SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen had
informed him that the former tender had been annulled and
that he had been therefore surprised to receive a letter from
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority chief Anton Berisha
recommending that he agree to resurrect the Mobikos license.
COM replied that UNMIK and the PISG needed to agree on a way
forward given the strongly different views held by those
involved and advised Ceku to discuss the matter with the
SRSG. (NOTE. Jessen-Petersen and Ceku announced at a joint
press conference on March 17 that a new tender would be
launched. END NOTE.)


5. (C) Ceku admitted to a particular problem in managing
Energy Minister (and the PM's distant cousin) Ethem Ceku, who
was already urging the PM to dismiss the Irish company, ESBI,
that manages electricity utility KEK and turn responsibility

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for the energy sector fully over to the ministry. PM Ceku
realized that Energy Minister Ceku's proposal calls for
action well beyond the government's authority under the
Constitutional Framework. He said he plans to take his
cousin to task in from of his entire staff for attempting to
undermine a KEK management structure that the PM believes has
produced, on balance, a vast improvement in KEK operations.
The PM expects that the energy minister will quickly bounce
back from this dressing down. (NOTE. Any decision PM Ceku may
have been facing on energy was largely overtaken by a March
14 letter from AAK President Ramush Haradinaj to ESBI chief
John Ashley that strongly endorsed ESBI's management strategy
at KEK. END NOTE.)


6. (C) SRSG Jessen-Petersen called COM on March 17 to rave
about Ceku's focus and cooperative spirit in their
just-concluded first substantive meeting, saying that Ceku
had achieved more in a week than his predecessor had in a
year.


7. (U) USOP clears this message in its entirety for release
to UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
GOLDBERG