BRUSSELS, June 23 () –
The foreign ministers of the European Union meet this Monday to discuss the new rise in the crisis between Serbia and Kosovo, after the emergency meeting of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic , and the Kosovar Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, separately to reduce tensions, after the arrest of three Kosovar policemen by the Serbian authorities.
During the meeting in Luxembourg, Borrell will present to the foreign ministers the results of the emergency meeting in which all parties agreed on the need to repeat the elections in northern Kosovo and take measures to de-escalate the violence.
“If they want to talk about normalization, they have to start by resolving this,” said the head of Foreign Affairs of the EU in statements to the Spanish media, after acknowledging that the situation is at “the worst moment” after “very serious” incidents such as the attack on forces from the NATO mission in Kosovo.
The EU has asked Pristina for new elections in the four locations in conflict and guarantees to both Serbia and Kosovo of the withdrawal of police and protesters in the vicinity of municipal government buildings.
European diplomacy hopes that the meeting between Twenty-seven will serve to reinforce unity in the message and maintain pressure so that Pristina and Belgrade take steps to reduce tension. “The parties must do a series of things. If we manage to hold elections and return to normality, we will continue the dialogue: this is the only way to resolve the conflict,” stressed a senior EU official ahead of the meeting of the Monday.
The bloc maintains measures against Kosovo after verifying the lack of progress to de-escalate the tension in the northern municipalities, with a Serb majority, after the mayors of Albanian origin took their positions after elections widely boycotted by the Kosovar Serb majority and that the EU asked to be repeated.
Specifically, it has adopted the suspension of high-level visits and the freezing of financial cooperation with Kosovo, “temporary and reversible measures depending on the evolution of the situation on the ground.”
Although the Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven will not have more sanctions on the table this Monday, the EU stresses that “there will be consequences” if Belgrade and Pristina do not stop the spiral of tensions. In this way, it is expected that the matter will go to the table of the heads of State and Government of the EU when they meet at the European Council at the end of the week, in which they will repeat the idea that the bloc is ready to take measures if hostilities do not cease.
The arrest of the three agents was the penultimate episode of years and years of crisis whose latest rise began first with a conflict over the vehicle registration process and has escalated over time until reaching a new peak after the elections. premises in northern Kosovo, anticipated due to the en bloc resignation of the Kosovar Serb mayors in rejection of the Pristina government.
