The European Union is not going to elevate political and financial sanctions on Kosovo except the federal government de-escalates tensions with ethnic Serbs, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak mentioned on Tuesday throughout a go to in Pristina.
EU international locations imposed punitive measures on ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo after Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s authorities didn’t heed EU and U.S. requests to defuse strife within the nation’s north following the worst clashes in over a decade.
The measures embrace halting visits by Kosovo officers to the EU and a suspension of a big a part of EU financial help to the small Balkan republic, and Brussels has warned of additional measures if Kurti doesn’t act to ease the tensions.
“My wish is not to have sanctions,” Lajcak informed reporters in Pristina after a three-hour assembly with Kurti. “The purpose of this mission, of course, and the discussion that we are having, is to get to the stage when these measures will be stopped.”
In a press release, Kurti mentioned he informed Lajcak that “the EU’s punitive measures against Kosovo are unfair and make the dialogue asymmetrical”.
Violence in north Kosovo, the place 50,000 Serbs reside and type a neighborhood majority, erupted in late May after ethnic Albanian mayors took workplace following a neighborhood election boycotted by Serbs demanding implementation of a decade-old deal for extra autonomy.
Some 30 NATO peacekeeping troopers defending three city halls in northern Kosovo had been injured in clashes with Serb protesters, and 52 Serbs had been harm.
Lajcak mentioned the EU additionally wished Serbia, which north Kosovo Serbs nonetheless dedicate their allegiance 15 years after Pristina declared independence from Belgrade, to behave constructively to defuse the disaster, or face penalties as properly.
“The European Union has made it clear that it has sanctions also ready for Serbia and that they will be implemented if the member states decide that Serbia is not complying with the EU request,” mentioned Lajcak, who will journey to Belgrade on Wednesday.
The United States and European Union, Kosovo’s important allies, have primarily held Kurti answerable for tensions within the north for having put in 4 ethnic Albanian mayors of their workplaces with police safety regardless of objections from native Serbs.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
