Von Cramon: Kosovo and Republika Srpska Should Not Be Compared or Connected

Viola Von Cramon (YouTube snapshot)

Member of European Parliament Viola von Cramon-Taubadel has said that Kosovo and Republika Srpska should not be compared or connected in any way.

Asked to comment on the statements of certain officials in the region, who are comparing the status of Kosovo and Republika Srpska, Von Cramon told Al Jazeera on Nov. 8 that those were separate issues and that the EU was dealing with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue separately.

Von Cramon, the European Parliament's Rapporteur for Kosovo, said she did not wish to speculate that Republika Srpska was supposed to be an instrument for Serbia's concession to Kosovo. She added that the countries in question needed to turn to their own democratization, to the peaceful solving of internal issues and to the full implementation of reforms related to the EU, rather than to the constant creation of tensions and nationalism.

According to her, the Western Balkans today were not a better place nor were they any closer to the EU, despite Brussels' efforts "to bring that region into the European club as soon as possible." She said that many were rightly concerned after statements by the Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Milorad Dodik, that he wanted Republika Srpska to secede, and the concrete steps he had taken to pull that entity out of the institutional framework that had been built in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years.