EU: Urgent Steps Needed for Reducing Tension in Kosovo, Return to Dialogue

Peter Stano (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

The European Union (EU) believes that, after the announced reduction of the number of special police in the north of Kosovo, further steps were needed for reducing tension and for the EU to consider the abolishing of punitive measures against the authorities in Pristina.

“That means early elections in Kosovo’s north have to be held as soon as possible, with the participation of the Kosovo Serbs, and that true dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade continues, with the resolving of issues, one by one, the most important being the implementation of the annex to the Ohrid agreement,” the spokesman of the European Commission (EC), Peter Stano, stated in Brussels on Aug. 17.

Stano said that the deadlines for the calming of tensions and results in the dialogue depended on “the capability of Pristina and Belgrade to fulfill the necessary requests, standards, promises.” This was his reply to a reporter’s question about whether the EU expected some prompt, tangible results in the normalization of relations between Pristina and Belgrade by the end of the year, bearing in mind next year’s elections for the European Parliament and other important events.

Asked about whether the EC would lift the sanctions against Pristina if the authorities there announce the scheduling of new elections in municipalities in Kosovo’s north, Stano replied that the EU and its international partners had clearly explained on several occasions that sanctions against Pristina can be lifted if the authorities in Kosovo start reducing tensions.