EU Requests Prompt De-Escalation, Otherwise Concrete Steps to Follow

Peter Stano (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

The European Union (EU) expects “tangible steps” to be taken by the authorities in Pristina and Belgrade to reduce tensions in Kosovo, and the two parties’ leaders to attend “a crisis meeting” in Brussels. Otherwise, “concrete moves” by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will follow, a spokesperson for the European Commission (EC), Peter Stano, said on June 19.

Stano said that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had yet to confirm the attendance of the “crisis meeting” to which Borrell had invited them in order to identify a solution for the latest crisis in the north of Kosovo, and discuss the implementation of the Agreement on the path to normalization between Kosovo and Serbia.

Borrell and the Union request that Kurti and Vucic should arrive in Brussels “with no strings attached,” and engage in resolving the crisis. Otherwise, “there will be consequences that the citizens of Kosovo and Serbia will inevitably feel,” Stano said, explaining that “only the leaders, Prime Minister Kurti and President Vucic, should be blamed for that, no one else.”

“At this point though we are focused on what’s truly necessary and urgent, which is to de-escalate the situation and find a way out of the crisis,” Stano said.

EU foreign ministers will meet on June 26 to discuss whether the leaders in Pristina and Belgrade have made “reasonable moves” to reduce tensions, including the arrival in the “crisis meeting” in Brussels, which will affect “Kosovo and Serbia’s European path and perspective,” Stano added.