Stano: EU Hopes the next Meeting in Brussels Not to be Affected by Latest Developments in Kosovo

Peter Stano (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

The European Union (EU) hopes the latest developments in Kosovo will not affect the next meeting between the chief negotiators of Serbia and Kosovo, expected to discuss the initial steps in the implementation of the Ohrid agreement at their next meeting in Brussels, on April 4, a spokesman for the European Commission (EC), Peter Stano, said.

Ahead of the meeting between the two chief negotiators, Petar Petkovic and Besnik Bislimi, Stano said the EU expected both sides to contribute and create the necessary atmosphere for constructive engagement and reconciliation.

The EC spokesman underlined that “the EU, together with the international partners, made it very clear to both parties that what they should do was to focus, and make a constructive contribution to protecting the atmosphere of normalization and reconciliation, and not to do anything to the contrary.”

“We hope that what we have witnessed in Kosovo over the past few days, in the north of Kosovo in particularly, will not affect the meeting tomorrow,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell’s spokesman said when asked by a journalist what the Union’s opinion was about new tensions, particularly in the north of Kosovo.

The April 4 meeting between Belgrade and Pristina’s chief negotiators is very important, Stano said, because it will be the first official meeting of the chef negotiators after the Ohrid agreement was reached, and they are expected to work on moves to implement the Agreement and an annex to it. Stano explained that “the crisis is impossible to overcome by an agreement alone, but that it requires its implementation as well.”