BELGRADE, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The European Union could withhold funds from a 1.6 billion euro allocation of loans and grants to Serbia, after Belgrade passed laws that are “eroding trust” in its commitment to the rule of law, the bloc’s enlargement commissioner said.
Reforms to centralise the judiciary that came into force this week brought criticism from judges and prosecutors who see them as bolstering President Aleksandar Vucic’s hold on power, weakening the fight against organised crime and undermining Serbia’s bid to join the EU.
“These amendments are eroding trust. It is becoming harder for those in Brussels who are willing to advance with Serbia to make their case,” EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said in emailed comments to Reuters late on Thursday.
Kos said the commission was reviewing funding for Serbia under the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, aimed at aligning the region to EU rules and ultimately bringing countries such as Serbia into the bloc. Serbia was allocated 1.6 billion euros of loans and grants under the programme.
“These (funds) contain preconditions linked to the rule of law,” she said.
Serbia began official talks to join the EU in 2014 but widespread corruption and weak institutions have slowed progress.
The judicial reforms include limiting the mandate of chief public prosecutors and granting court presidents – responsible for court administration – greater powers over judges. Critics fear the reforms will erode judges’ independence and jeopardise high-level corruption cases overseen by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime.
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The justice ministry has said that the new laws will make the judiciary more efficient by streamlining the decision-making process.
Since the backlash, Serbia has requested the opinion of the Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional law experts of the Council of Europe, a human rights body.
“Once that opinion is issued, we expect these laws to be revised accordingly and in an inclusive manner,” Kos said.
(Reporting by Edward McAllisterEditing by Peter Graff)
(Reuters) -Kosovo’s parliament on Sunday failed to elect Albin Kurti as prime minister, deepening the country’s political crisis with a snap election seen as the only solution to overcome a political deadlock after inconclusive polls in February.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
At least Europe no longer has to endure that hackneyed Henry Kissinger quip about whom to call if you want “to call Europe.”
No one’s calling anyway.
Of the myriad geostrategic illusions that have been destroyed in recent days, the most sobering realization for anyone residing on the Continent should be this: No one cares what Europe thinks. Across an array of global flashpoints, from Nagorno-Karabakh to Kosovo to Israel, Europe has been relegated to the role of a well-meaning NGO, whose humanitarian contributions are welcomed, but is otherwise ignored.
The 27-member bloc has always struggled to articulate a coherent foreign policy, given the diverse national interests at play. Even so, it still mattered, mainly due to the size of its market. The EU’s global influence is waning, however, amid the secular decline of its economy and its inability to project military might at a time of growing global instability.
Instead of the “geopolitical” powerhouse Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised when she took office in 2019, the EU has devolved into a pan-Europeanminnow, offering a degree of bemusement to the real players at the top table, while mostly just embarrassing itself amid its cacophony of contradictions.
If that sounds harsh, consider the past 72 hours: In the wake of Hamas’ massacre of hundreds of Israeli civilians over the weekend, European Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi announced on Monday that the bloc would “immediately” suspend €691 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority. A few hours later, Slovenian Commissioner Janez Lenarčič contradicted his Hungarian colleague, insisting the aid “will continue as long as needed.”
The Commission’s press operation followed up with a statement that the EU would conduct an “urgent review” of some aid programs to ensure that funds not be funneled into terrorism, implying such safeguards were not already in place.
As far as the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was concerned, the outcome of any review of assistance for the Palestinians was a foregone conclusion: “We will have to support more, not less,” he said on Tuesday.
To sum up: Over the course of just 24 hours, the Commission went from announcing it would suspend all aid to the Palestinians to signaling it would increase the flow of funds.
The EU’s response to the events on the ground in Israel was no less confused. Even as Israel was still counting the bodies from the most horrific massacre in the Jewish state’s history, Borrell, a longtime critic of the country who has effectively been declared persona non grata there, resorted to bothsidesing.
Borrell, a Spanish socialist, condemned Hamas’ “barbaric and terrorist attack,” while also chiding Israel for its blockade of Gaza and highlighting the “suffering” of the Palestinians who voted Hamas into power.
The Spaniard’s approach stood in sharp contrast to that of von der Leyen, who unequivocally condemned the attacks (albeit in a series of tweets) and had the Israeli flag projected onto the façade of her office.
Borrell organized an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Oman to discuss the situation in Israel, but Israel’s foreign minister declined to participate, even remotely | AFP via Getty Images
Those moves immediately drew protest from other corners of the EU, however, with Clare Daly, a firebrand leftist MEP from Ireland, questioning von der Leyen’s legitimacy and telling her to “shut up.”
By mid-week, ascertaining Europe’s position on the crisis was like throwing darts — blindfolded.
Bloody hands
Compare that with the messaging from Washington.
“In this moment, we must be crystal clear,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a special White House address Tuesday. “We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack.”
Biden noted that he’d called France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom to discuss the crisis. Notably not on the list: any of the EU’s “leaders.”
On Tuesday, Borrell organized an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Oman, where they were already gathering, to discuss the situation in Israel. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, declined to participate, even remotely.
That’s not too surprising, considering Europe’s record on Iran, which has supported Hamas for decades and whose leadership celebrated the weekend attacks. Though Iran denies direct involvement, many analysts say Hamas’ carefully planned assault would not have been possible without training and logistical support from Tehran.
“Hamas would not exist if not for Iran’s support,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said on Wednesday. “And so it is a bit of splitting hairs as to whether they were intimately involved in the planning of these attacks, or simply funded Hamas for decades to give them the ability to plan these attacks. There’s no doubt that Iran has blood on its hands.”
Despite persistent signs of Tehran’s malevolent activities across the region, including the detention of a European diplomat vacationing in Iran, Borrell has repeatedly sought to engage with the country’s hard-line regime in the hope of reigniting the so-called nuclear deal with global powers that then-U.S. President Donald Trump exited in 2018.
Last year, Borrell even traveled to Iran in a bid to restart talks, despite the loud objections of Israel’s then-foreign minister, Yair Lapid.
If nothing else, Borrell is consistent.
“Iran wants to wipe out Israel? Nothing new about that,” he told POLITICO in 2019 when he was still Spanish foreign minister. “You have to live with it.”
European Council President Charles Michel mounted an ambitious diplomatic effort earlier this year amid a resurgence in tensions | Jorge Guererro/AFP via Getty Images
Now Europe has to live with the consequences of that misguided policy and its loss of credibility in Israel, the region’s only democracy.
The Charles Michel Show
Another glaring example of Europe’s geopolitical impotence is Nagorno-Karabakh, the disputed, predominantly Armenian, region in Azerbaijan.
The long-simmering conflict there was all but forgotten by most of the world, but not by European Council President Charles Michel, who mounted an ambitious diplomatic effort earlier this year amid a resurgence in tensions.
In July, Michel hosted leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels, the sixth such meeting. He described the discussions as “frank, honest and substantive.” He even invited the leaders to a special summit in October for a “pentalateral meeting” with Germany and France in Granada.
It wasn’t meant to be. By then, Azerbaijan had seized the region, sending more than 100,000 refugees fleeing to Armenia. Europe, in dire need of natural gas from Azerbaijan, was powerless to do anything but watch.
Earlier this month, Michel blamed Russia, traditionally Armenia’s protector in the region, for the fiasco.
“It is clear for everyone to see that Russia has betrayed the Armenian people,” Michel told Euronews.
A similar pattern has played out in Kosovo, where the Europeans have been trying for years to broker a lasting peace between its Albanian and Serbian populations. The main sticking point there is the status of the northern part of Kosovo, bordering Serbia, where Serbs comprise a majority of the roughly 40,000 residents.
Borrell even appointed a “Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan Regional Issues.”
The incumbent in the post, Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia’s former foreign minister, hasn’t had much luck. Though Lajčák was awarded the grandiose title more than three years ago, the parties are, if anything, further apart today than ever.
The EU has spent untold millions trying to stabilize the region, funding civil society organizations, schools and even a police force.
When tensions threatened to devolve into all-out combat following an incursion into northern Kosovo by Serbian militiamen last month, however, the EU was forced to resort to its tried-and-true crisis resolution mechanism: Uncle Sam.
”We get criticized for too little leadership in Europe and then for too much,” U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke said in 1998, after Washington dragged its reluctant European allies into an effort to halt the “ethnic cleansing” campaign unleashed by Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milošević in Kosovo.
”The fact is the Europeans are not going to have a common security policy for the foreseeable future,” Holbrooke added. “We have done our best to keep them involved. But you can imagine how far I would have got with Mr. Milošević if I’d said, ‘Excuse me, Mr. President, I’ll be back in 24 hours after I’ve talked to the Europeans.”’
Risky business
One needn’t look further than Ukraine for proof that his point is no less valid today. Though the EU has done what it can, providing tens of billions in financial, humanitarian and military aid, it’s not nearly enough to help Ukraine keep the Russians at bay. If it weren’t for American support, Russian troops would be stationed all along the EU’s eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s plight highlights the divide between Europe’s geostrategic aspirations and reality. Even though Europe didn’t anticipate Russia’s full-scale invasion, it had been talking for years about the need to improve its defense capabilities.
“We must fight for our future ourselves, as Europeans, for our destiny,” then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in 2017.
And then nothing happened.
The reality is that it will always be easier to lean on Washington than to achieve European consensus around foreign policy and military capabilities.
That’s why Europe’s discussions about security sound more like fantasy football than Risk.
After Biden decided to send a U.S. aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean in response to the Hamas attack this week, Thierry Breton, France’s EU commissioner, said Europe needed to think about building its own aircraft carrier. Even in Brussels, the comment generated little more than comic relief.
Despite all the rhetoric about the necessity for Europe to play a more global role, not even the leaders of the EU’s biggest members, France and Germany, seem to be serious about it.
As Biden hunkered down in the White House Situation Room to discuss the crisis in Israel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were busy conferring in Hamburg.
After agreeing to redouble their efforts to cut red tape in the EU, they took a harbor cruise with their partners.
The leaders celebrated their successful deliberations on a local wharf with beer and Fischbrötchen, a Hamburg fish sandwich. The sun even came out.
NATO said on Friday it is increasing its peacekeeping presence in northern Kosovo as a result of escalating tensions with neighboring Serbia, as the U.S. called on Serbia to withdraw a military buildup on the border with Kosovo.
The heightening of tensions comes after about 30 heavily armed Serbs stormed the northern Kosovo village of Banjska last Sunday. A Kosovo policeman and three of the attackers were killed in gun battles.
“We need NATO because the border with Serbia is very long and the Serbian army has been recently strengthening its capacities,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told the Associated Press. “They have a lot of military equipment from both the Russian Federation and China,” he said.
“These people want to turn back time,” Kurti said. “They are in search of a time machine. They want to turn the clock back by 30 years. But that is not going to happen,” he said.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade and Moscow have refused to recognize it.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed a “large military deployment” of Serbian tanks and artillery was on the border. He described the buildup as “a very destabilizing development” and called on Serbia to withdraw these forces.
The White House also “underscored the readiness of the United States to work with our allies to ensure KFOR [NATO’s Kosovo Force] remained appropriately resourced to fulfill its mission,” according to a readout of a call between the U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Kurti.
Kirby added that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to urge “immediate de-escalation” and a return to dialogue.
The U.K. also said it was sending troops to support NATO’s peacekeepers on the ground.
Milan Radoicic, the vice president of Serb List, the main Kosovo-Serb political party, resigned on Friday after admitting to setting up the armed group responsible for the attack.
The U.S. ambassador to Kosovo earlier said Washington had concluded that the weekend attack was intended to destabilize the region and warned of potential further escalation. “We know it was coordinated and sophisticated,” Ambassador Jeffrey M. Hovenier told POLITICO, adding the gunmen appeared to have had military training. “The quantity of weapons suggests this was serious, with a plan to destabilize security in the region,” he said.
The EU and the U.S. have pushed for years to broker a lasting peace between Kosovo and Serbia, but a deal has remained elusive amid continued divisions over the status of northern Kosovo, where a majority of the population is Serbian.
EU’s Josep Borrell has summoned Kosovo’s Kurti and Serbia’s Vucic for urgent talks in Brussels amid soaring tensions.
The European Union has summoned the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo for emergency talks to try to bring an end to a series of violent clashes near their border that is fueling fears of a return to open conflict.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday that urgent meetings with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic were under way in Brussels.
“The parties are expected to defuse tensions and deliver on their obligations without preconditions,” Borrell said on Twitter before the meetings.
“Today, we aim to find solutions for immediate de-escalation and way forward.”
The situation in the north of #Kosovo continues to be very tense.
Today, we aim to find solutions for immediate de-escalation and way forward.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) June 22, 2023
Earlier, Borrell said: “We need immediate de-escalation and new elections in the north with participation of Kosovo Serbs. This is paramount for the region and [the] EU.”
The 27-nation bloc has for years been leading talks aimed at reconciling the two foes, but with little success.
Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades. Their 1998-99 conflict left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians. Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
Tensions flared anew last month after Kosovo police seized local municipality buildings in northern Kosovo, where Serbs represent a majority, to install ethnic Albanian mayors who were elected in a local election that Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted.
The EU had threatened Kosovo with political consequences, such as suspending high-level visits and financial cooperation, if it does not reverse course on the elections.
‘Nothing to talk to him about’
Serbia has put its troops on the border on the highest state of alert amid a series of recent clashes between Kosovo Serbs on one side and Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers on the other. In recent weeks, NATO has sent in reinforcements.
The tensions persisted last week with three stun grenades exploding near Kosovo police stations in the north of the country, while Kosovo Serbs staged protests in front of municipality buildings.
Borrell had been trying for several days get Kurti and Vucic to come to Brussels but they had refused until now.
Still, Vucic said that he will not be talking to Kurti in Brussels. “I have nothing to talk to him about,” he told the state RTS broadcaster. Vucic has said there can be no negotiations until Serbs who have been arrested by Kosovo police for attacks on Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers are released.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Kurti said he “will insist on the urgent unconditional release of the three policemen held hostage by Serbia, de-escalation and normalisation of relations”.
Borrell’s spokeswoman, Nabila Massrali, refused to be drawn on how the talks would play out, saying only that the meetings are “an opportunity offered to both leaders to show readiness to be constructive and de-escalate”.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg vowed that its peacekeepers “will continue to act impartially. We have increased our presence and will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all communities in Kosovo.”
Just four months ago, the EU’s Borrell had made things seem promising. He exited talks with Vucic and Kurti to announce that Serbia and Kosovo had given their tacit approval to an EU-sponsored plan to end months of political crises and help improve their ties longer-term.
But the “deal” unravelled almost immediately as both leaders appeared to renege on commitments that Borrell suggested they had made.
Josep Borrell seeks to prevent an open conflict after a series of violent clashes near the Kosovo-Serbia border.
The European Union has summoned the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo for emergency talks to try to bring an end to a series of violent clashes near their border, fearing a return to open conflict.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that he would hold “urgent meetings” with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on Thursday.
It was unclear whether the two would meet face to face or hold separate talks with Borrell.
“We need immediate de-escalation and new elections in the north with participation of Kosovo Serbs. This is paramount for the region and [the] EU,” Borrell said on Twitter before the talks.
The 27-nation bloc has for years been leading talks aimed at reconciling the two foes but with little success.
Vucic, left, and Kurti, right, met with Borrell, second left, in Brussels, in February [File: Virginia Mayo/AP]
Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades.
Their 1998-99 conflict left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians. Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
Serbia has long seen Kosovo as its spiritual and historical homeland, the scene of pivotal battles over the centuries.
It continues to host some of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s most revered monasteries.
The flare-up
Tensions flared anew last month after Kosovo police seized local municipality buildings in northern Kosovo, where Serbs represent a majority, to install ethnic Albanian mayors following a local election that Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted.
Serbia has put its troops on the border on the highest state of alert amid a series of recent clashes between Kosovo Serbs on one side and Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers on the other.
A US soldier in Kosovo’s NATO peacekeeping force stands guard near a municipal office in Leposavic [File: Fatos Bytyci/Reuters]
In recent weeks, NATO has sent in reinforcements.
Tensions persisted last week with three shock grenades exploding near Kosovo police stations in the north of the country, while Kosovo Serbs staged protests in front of municipality buildings.
Borrell had been trying for several days to have Kurti and Vucic come to Brussels but they had refused until now.
Still, Vucic said he would not be talking to Kurti in Brussels.
“I have nothing to talk to him about,” he told the state broadcaster RTS.
Vucic has said there can be no negotiations until the release of Serbs who have been arrested by Kosovo police for attacks on Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers.
Just four months ago, Borrell appeared to have made progress. He exited meetings with the pair to announce that Serbia and Kosovo had given their tacit approval to a EU-sponsored plan to end months of political crises and help improve their ties longer-term.
But the arrangement unravelled almost immediately as both leaders appeared to renege on commitments that Borrell suggested they had made.
Kosovo has demanded the release of three border patrol officers accusing Serbia of ‘kidnapping’.
Serbian authorities said they captured three “fully armed” Kosovo police officers inside Serbia near their mutual border, while Kosovo officials said the trio were “kidnapped” on Kosovo territory as they patrolled the area.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed Serbia for abducting the men and demanded their release on Wednesday. He said they were arrested 300 metres (330 yards) inside Kosovan territory near the border.
“The entry of Serbian forces into the territory of Kosovo is aggression and aimed at escalation and destabilisation,” Kurti wrote on his Facebook page.
Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla also denounced the “kidnapping” that he said “violates any agreement and is against international norms”.
The minister called on the international community “to urgently increase pressure on Serbia not only to release our police officers but also stop its provocations”.
But Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said the three were arrested as far as 1.8km (one mile) inside Serbian territory near the village of Gnjilica. He also accused Kurti of inciting violence.
“We are at the crossroads whether we will have peace or not … and there’s one man in the Balkans who wants to incite conflicts at any cost – and that is Albin Kurti,” Vucic said in a live TV broadcast.
He rejected Kurti’s accusation that the Serbian police entered Kosovo, saying, “They did not even set a foot there.”
‘Difficult to return to normalcy’
Serbia also said the officers were armed with automatic weapons and in full military gear with GPS devices, maps and other equipment.
A video published by Serbian police showed masked men hauling off a group of men in handcuffs.
Vucic said Belgrade was willing to submit all the evidence and accept an international inquiry into the arrests.
He added his government may relocate some of its military currently stationed five kilometres (3.1 miles) away from the boundary to garrisons inside Serbia to defuse tensions. “It will be difficult to return to normalcy,” said Vucic.
Kosovo banned all vehicles with Serbia’s licence plates from entering its territory in response to the arrests, an interior ministry official told the Reuters news agency.
The detentions may further raise tensions in the predominantly Serb northern part in Kosovo, which borders Serbia and has seen spurts of violence in recent weeks.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after an uprising by the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority against Serbian rule.
Belgrade, along with its key allies China and Russia, has refused to recognise Kosovo’s independence, effectively preventing it from having a seat at the United Nations.
In 1999, a NATO bombing campaign drove Serbian security forces out of Kosovo but Belgrade has continued to regard it as a southern province.
It erupted after Serbs rallied against ethnic Albanian mayors who moved into their offices following a local vote in which turnout was just 3.5 percent. Serbs in the area boycotted the election.
At least 34 soldiers of NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo were injured during clashes with protesters in the northern part of the country Monday, according to the Italian defense ministry.
Tensions have risen in the past week after ethnically Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo, a majority Kosovo Serb area, following April elections that Kosovo Serbs had boycotted.
NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) said the recent developments prompted them to increase their presence in northern Kosovo on Monday morning, which they later said turned violent.
The Italian defense ministry said 14 of its KFOR peacekeeping soldiers were injured when protesters threw “Molotov cocktails, with nails, firecrackers and stones inside.”
Hungarian and Moldovan soldiers were also among the injured peacekeeping troops, according to the Italian defense ministry.
“Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” it said, adding that KFOR medical units treated the soldiers.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathy for the Italian KFOR soldiers injured in the clashes, adding in a statement, “What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible. We will not tolerate further attacks on KFOR.”
Meanwhile, Nemanja Starović, Serbian State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, offered a different version of events than what was outlined by NATO countries. He said “many” protesters were injured in the clashes and accused KFOR of using flash grenades when the “peaceful” protesters had “decided to disperse and continue the protest tomorrow morning.”
Kosovo, which is mainly ethnically Albanian, won independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia still considers Kosovo to be an integral part of its territory as do the Serbs living in northern Kosovo.
The NATO-led multi-national contingents had been deployed to four municipalities in the region to contain “violent demonstrations” as “newly elected mayors in recent days tried to take office,” KFOR said in a statement.
On Friday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić put the armed forces on the highest level of combat readiness. That decision followed Kosovo police clashing with protesters who tried to block a newly elected ethnic Albanian mayor from entering their office.
On Monday, barbed wire had been put around a municipal administration building in the municipality of Leposavić, with KFOR troops reported to be wearing anti-riot gear, CNN affiliate N1 reported. It added that Kosovo police special units erected a fence near the municipal administration building in the town of Zvecan.
Kosovo police say protesters had shown violence on Monday as they gathered in the municipalities of “Leposaviq, Zubin Potok and Zveqan.” Police added that in front of a facility in Zvecan, protesters had thrown tear gas and “tried to cross the security cordons to enter into the municipality facility by force.”
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić described KFOR’s increased presence in northern Kosovo on Monday as “belated” and said “the task of this international mission was to protect the interests and peace of the people in Kosovo and Metohija, not the usurpers.”
Brnabić said the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is “tense and difficult” and said, “It has never been more difficult.” Brnabić also expressed her “gratitude to Serbs in the province for remaining calm and refraining from violence.”
Meanwhile, the United States ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, condemned “violent actions” by protesters, citing the use of explosives.
The European Union Ambassador to Kosovo, Tomáš Szunyog, also condemned actions by protesters, citing damage to media vehicles.
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, also spoke about the situation on Monday, describing it as a “large eruption is brewing up in the center of Europe.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong title for Nemanja Starović. He is the state secretary in Serbia’s Ministry of Defence.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has called on Pristina to de-escalate tensions after placing army on high alert.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has called on Kosovo to tone down tensions with Serbia, two days after clashes between Kosovan police and protesters who are opposed to Albanian mayors taking office in ethnic Serbian areas.
“Pristina must de-escalate & not take unilateral, destabilising steps,” Stoltenberg said in a tweet on Sunday.
The transatlantic military alliance’s secretary-general said he had spoken to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about Kosovo. He added that Pristina and Belgrade must engage in the EU-led dialogue.
Serbs, who form the majority of the population in Kosovo’s northern region, do not accept its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after the war ended in 1999.
They refused to take part in local elections in April, and Albanian candidates won all four municipalities with a 3.5 percent turnout. Backed by Belgrade, they said they would not accept the mayors and that they do not represent them.
On Friday, small groups of ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo clashed with police while trying to block the entrance of municipal buildings to prevent the recently elected officials from entering.
Police fired tear gas and several cars were set ablaze. Three out of four mayors were escorted into their offices by police, who were pelted with rocks and responded with tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters.
In the wake of the latest unrest, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered the army to be placed on high alert and “start moving” towards the border with Kosovo.
On Saturday morning, Vucic chaired a meeting of the National Security Council, which adopted a plan of “security activities … aimed at strengthening Serbia’s defence capabilities”, the Serbian president’s office said in a statement.
The presidency added that “Serbia’s armed forces remain in a state of maximum alert until further notice”.
A joint statement from the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany, known as the Quint group, and the EU office in Pristina warned Kosovo against any other measures to force access to the municipality buildings.
“We strongly caution all parties against other threats or actions which could impact on a safe and secure environment, including freedom of movement, and that could inflame tensions or promote conflict,” Quint and the EU said.
“New unilateral actions will negatively impact relations with the Quint countries and the EU.”
The US, UK and EU are Kosovo’s main backers as the country is still not a United Nations member due to objections from Serbia, Russia, China and others.
NATO on Tuesday deployed additional forces to Kosovo, a day after peacekeeping troops were injured in clashes with Serb protesters in the country.
11 Italian and 19 Hungarian soldiers belonging to Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led peacekeeping mission, were wounded in northern Kosovo while working to contain violent demonstrations. Three of the Hungarian soldiers were injured by the use of firearms, according to KFOR.
NATO condemned the attacks and called “on all sides to refrain from actions that further inflame tensions, and to engage in dialogue.”
In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Allied Joint Force Command Naples said NATO is sending the Operational Reserve Forces (ORF) for the Western Balkans to Kosovo.
“JFC Naples is closely monitoring the situation in Kosovo, and will continue to coordinate with KFOR to ensure that they have all the capabilities and forces they need to impartially ensure a safe and secure environment and the freedom of movement for all communities,” it said, noting that additional reserve forces have been ordered to boost readiness to reinforce KFOR if needed.
Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples, said in a statement that “the deployment of additional NATO forces to Kosovo is a prudent measure to ensure that KFOR has the capabilities it needs to maintain security in accordance with our U.N. Security Council Mandate.”
“I want to commend KFOR for taking swift, restrained, and professional action to intervene to stop the unrest and to save lives,” he said, adding: “The violence must stop, and all sides must stop taking actions to undermine the peace in any and all communities of Kosovo.”
Tensions are running high in the region. On Friday, the U.S., France, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. issued a joint statement condemning Kosovo’s decision to force access to municipal buildings in northern Kosovo. The five countries also said they are “concerned by Serbia’s decision to raise the level of readiness of its Armed Forces at the border with Kosovo and call all parties for maximum restraint, avoiding inflammatory rhetoric.”
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Tuesday gave the green light for citizens from Kosovo to travel freely in Europe without visas from next year.
The move means that Kosovo’s citizens will be able to travel in the 27-nation Schengen passport free area, which includes most EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, for periods of up to 90 days every six months.
Citizens in the Schengen countries will be able to visit Kosovo without visas too. The former Serbian territory was the last country in the Western Balkans region not to have such travel arrangements with the EU.
Dutch Socialist lawmaker Thijs Reuten, who chaperoned the process through the European Parliament, said the move “finally enables the people of Kosovo to easily travel, visit relatives and do business in the EU.”
“But it is more than that,” he added in a statement, as the assembly met in Strasbourg France. “This milestone is also an important foundation for the future and ever-closer cooperation between the EU and Kosovo.”
Kosovo wants to join the EU and is slowly bringing its laws into line with the bloc’s standards.
The visa exemption will enter force as soon as the EU’s new electronic travel system is in place and in any case in 2024.
Serb protesters have agreed to start removing barricades and end their blockade of roads in northern Kosovo, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said.
Vucic, who met Serbs from northern Kosovo in the Serbian town of Raska, said the process of removing the barricades, which have blocked roads for 19 days, will begin on Thursday morning.
“The removal of barricades will begin,” Vucic said late on Wednesday.
“This is not a simple process, and can’t be done in two hours, as some imagined. But within 24 to 48 hours the barricades will be removed. But distrust is not removed,” he said.
“Those who are playing with [the] very existence of Serbs in Kosovo must know that, same like we didn’t allow it now, we will not allow it in the future as well.”
The European Union and the United States, who are mediating talks between Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the tense dispute, have guaranteed that none of the Serbs who set up barricades will be prosecuted, he added.
The EU and US said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they welcomed “the assurances of the leadership of Kosovo confirming that no lists of Kosovo Serb citizens to be arrested or prosecuted for peaceful protests/barricades exist”.
“At the same time, rule of law must be respected, and any form of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the statement added.
🇪🇺and 🇺🇸 call for maximum restraint and immediate de-escalation in north Kosovo. We are working with Ptd Vučić and PM Kurti to find a political solution in the interest of stability, safety and well-being of all local communities. Full statement 👉 https://t.co/SiknNws9HZ
Serbian state media reported that Vucic had travelled to the border with Kosovo for talks with Kosovo Serbs to try to persuade them to end their blockade.
“Just think again… what do we get if barricades remain? I can tell you 500 things we can get if they are removed,” Vucic said during the meeting, state-controlled public broadcaster RTS reported.
Serbia had put its army on its highest alert on Monday as the situation in northern Kosovo appeared to be spiralling out of control with Kosovo on Wednesday closing its largest border crossing to Serbian territory.
On Tuesday night, dozens of demonstrators on the Serbian side of the border used trucks and tractors to halt traffic leading to Merdare, the biggest crossing between the neighbours. The move forced Kosovo police to close the entry point on Wednesday.
“Such an illegal blockade has prevented the free movement and circulation of people and goods, therefore we invite our citizens and compatriots to use other border points for circulation,” a Kosovo police statement said.
Pristina had asked NATO-led peacekeepers to clear the barricades erected on Kosovo soil, adding that its own forces were also capable of removing the protesters.
The EU and US had voiced concern over the situation and urged for an immediate de-escalation, saying they were working with Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti to seek a political solution to one of the worst flare-ups in years between the Balkan neighbours.
“We call on everyone to exercise maximum restraint, to take immediate action to unconditionally de-escalate the situation, and to refrain from provocations, threats, or intimidation,” they said in their joint statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, a former Kosovo Serb policeman, whose arrest on December 10 had triggered violent protests by Kosovo’s Serb minority – including road blockades – was released from custody and put under house arrest after a request from the prosecutor’s office, a spokesperson for the Pristina Basic Court told Reuters.
Dejan Pantic was arrested for assaulting a serving police officer. The court decision angered Kosovo government officials, including Prime Minister Kurti and justice minister Albulena Haxhiu.
“I am very curious to see who is the prosecutor who makes this request, who is the judge of preliminary procedure that approves it,” Kurti said.
For more than 20 years, Kosovo has been a source of tension between the West, which backed its independence from Serbia in 2008, and Russia, which does not recognise Pristina and has supported Serbia in its efforts to block Kosovo’s membership of global organisations including the United Nations.
The Kremlin, however, denied the Kosovo interior minister’s claims this week that Russia was influencing Serbia’s handling of the ethnic tension to destabilise Kosovo, saying Serbia was defending the rights of ethnic Serbs.
The estimated 50,000 Serbs living in the north of Kosovo, which they believe is still part of Serbia, resist any moves they see as anti-Serb and refuse to recognise the government in Pristina or the status of Kosovo as a separate country. They have the support of many Serbs in Serbia and its government.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with the backing of the West, following a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened against Serbian forces to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
Protesting Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
Serbia’s defense ministry said that given the latest events in the region and Belgrade’s belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and forcefully remove the barricades, President Aleksandar Vucic had ordered Serbia’s army and police to be put on the highest alert.
Kosovo’s government called on NATO peacekeepers to remove the barricades, but said it had the capacity and readiness to act.
Kosovo and Serbia intend to join the European Union and have agreed, as part of that membership process, to resolve their outstanding issues and build good neighborly relations.
Here are some facts about the standoff:
Kosovo won independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against Belgrade’s repressive rule.
Serbia, however, still considers Kosovo to be an integral part of its territory and rejects suggestions it is whipping up tensions and conflict within its neighbor’s borders. Belgrade accuses Pristina of trampling on the rights of minority Serbs.
Ethnic Serbs, who do not recognise the Pristina government or Kosovan state institutions, account for 5% of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people, with ethnic Albanians making up about 90%. The Serbs have vented their hostility by refusing to pay Kosovo’s power operator for the electricity they use, for example, and frequently attacking police who try to make arrests.
Fresh ethnic tensions have erupted since December 10 when Serbs erected multiple roadblocks and exchanged fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving police officers during a previous protest.
The stand-off comes after months of trouble over the issue of car license plates. Kosovo has for years wanted the approximately 50,000 Serbs in the north to switch their Serbian car license plates to ones issued by Pristina, as part of the government’s desire to assert authority over its territory.
On July 31, Pristina announced a two-month window for the plates to be switched over, triggering protests, but it later agreed to push the implementation date back to next year.
Ethnic Serb mayors in northern municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned in November in protest at the looming switch.
Serbs in Kosovo want to create an association of majority-Serb municipalities that would operate with greater autonomy. Serbia and Kosovo have made little progress on this and other issues since committing in 2013 to the EU-sponsored dialogue.
NATO has about 3,700 troops stationed in Kosovo to maintain the peace. The alliance said it would intervene in line with its mandate if stability in the area were jeopardized. The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), which arrived in 2008, still has around 200 special police officers there.
Pristina closure of the Merdare crossing on Kosovo’s eastern border comes as tensions with its Balkans neighbour spiral.
Kosovo has closed its biggest border crossing after protesters blocked it on the Serbian side to support their ethnic kin in Kosovo in refusing to recognise the country’s independence.
Wednesday’s move has left only three entry points between the two countries open, with two other crossings on the Serbian border closed by similar protests on their Kosovar sides since December 10.
The latest protest came hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest possible level of alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
Serbs in Serbia used a truck and tractors on Tuesday to create the latest roadblock, close to the Merdare crossing on Kosovo’s eastern border, Belgrade-based media reported.
The obstruction is preventing thousands of Kosovars who work elsewhere in Europe from returning home for holidays.
About 50,000 Serbs living in ethnically divided northern Kosovo refuse to recognise the government in Pristina or the status of Kosovo as a country separate from Serbia. They have the support of many Serbs in Serbia and its government.
The closure in effect
“If you have already entered Serbia then you have to use other border crossings … or go through North Macedonia,” Kosovo’s foreign ministry said on its Facebook page, announcing the closure of the Merdare crossing.
The closure took effect at midnight, though the crossing was apparently already unusable.
The Merdare entry point is Kosovo’s most important for road freight. The country has international rail links.
A man crosses a street near a roadblock in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo [Miodrag Draskic/Reuters]
Since December 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo have exchanged fire with police and erected more than 10 roadblocks in and around Mitrovica.
Their action followed the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving police officers.
On Tuesday, two more roadblocks were erected in the north.
Russian influence
Kosovo’s interior minister has accused Serbia, under the influence of Russia, of attempting to destabilise his country via the protests.
Serbia denies it is trying to destabilise its neighbour and says it only wants to protect the Serbian minority living in what is now Kosovan territory but is not recognised by Belgrade.
Moscow said on Wednesday that it supported Serbia’s attempts to protect ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo but denied Pristina’s accusation that Russia was somehow stoking tensions in an attempt to sow chaos across the Balkans.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “wrong” to search for a destructive Russian influence.
“Serbia is a sovereign country, and naturally, it protects the rights of Serbs who live nearby in such difficult conditions, and naturally reacts harshly when these rights are violated,” Peskov said.
“Having very close allied relations, historical and spiritual relations with Serbia, Russia is very closely monitoring what is happening, how the rights of Serbs are respected and ensured,” he added. “And, of course, we support Belgrade in the actions that are being taken.”
Decades of turmoil
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
Kosovo’s government has asked NATO’s peacekeeping force for the country, the approximately 4,000-strong KFOR, to clear the barricades. But KFOR has no authority to act on Serbian soil.
Kosovo’s declaration of independence came 10 years after a war between ethnic Albanian fighters and Serbian forces that killed 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians.
Serbia, supported by its allies Russia and China, does not recognise the statehood of its former province but most Western countries do, including the United States.
MITROVICA, Kosovo — Serbs on Tuesday erected more roadblocks in northern Kosovo and defied international demands to remove those placed earlier, a day after Serbia put its troops near the border on a high level of combat readiness.
The new barriers, made of heavily loaded trucks, were put up overnight in Mitrovica, a northern Kosovo town divided between Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who represent the majority in Kosovo as a whole.
It was the first time since the recent crisis started that Serbs have blocked streets in one of the main towns. Until now, barricades had been set on roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said he ordered the army’s highest state of alert to “protect our people (in Kosovo) and preserve Serbia.”
He claimed that Pristina is preparing to “attack” Kosovo Serbs in the north of the country and remove by force several of the roadblocks that Serbs started putting up 18 days ago to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer.
On Tuesday, Vucic addressed reporters together with Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, who was barred by Kosovo authorities on Monday from entering Kosovo and visiting a medieval Serb church there before Serbian Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated on Jan. 7.
In his usual manner, Vucic blasted the West and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian authorities of plotting together to “trigger unrest and kill the Serbs” who are manning the barricades.
“Their aim is to expel Serbia out of Kosovo … with the help of their agents in Belgrade,” he said, apparently referring to the rare opposition and independent media, which are critical of his handling of the Kosovo crisis and his increasingly autocratic policies.
Nevertheless, he said that he is currently negotiating with European Union and U.S. mediators “on preserving peace and finding a compromise solution” for the current crisis.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic on Tuesday refused to comment on claims that Serbia had sent into Kosovo a number of armed men who are probably manning the barricades.
“I will not discuss that with you,” she said when asked by a reporter if she knows whether “Serbia’s armed forces” were currently present in Kosovo.
Kosovo officials have accused Vucic of using Serbia’s state media to stir up trouble and trigger incidents that could act as a pretext for an armed intervention in the former Serbian province.
Petar Petkovic, a Serbian government official in charge of contacts with Kosovo Serbs, told Serbian state television RTS that the combat readiness of Serb troops was introduced because Kosovo had done the same thing. Kosovo officials have denied that the country has raised its security alert levels.
Petkovic claimed that heavily armed Kosovo units want to attack Kosovo Serbs, including “women, the elderly, children, men. Our people who at the barricades are just defending the right to live.”
Kosovo has asked NATO-led peacekeepers stationed there to remove the barriers and hinted that Pristina’s forces will do it if the KFOR force doesn’t react. About 4,000 NATO-led peacekeepers have been stationed in Kosovo since the 1999 war, which ended with Belgrade losing control over the territory.
Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would likely result in a clash with NATO forces and would mean a major escalation of tensions in the Balkans, which are still reeling from the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Tensions between Kosovo, which declared independence after a war in 2008, and Serbia have reached their peak over the past month. Western attempts to reach a negotiated settlement have failed, with Serbia refusing to recognize Kosovo’s statehood.
KFOR and the EU have both asked Pristina and Belgrade to show restraint and avoid provocations.
Kosovo remains a potential flashpoint in the Balkans years after the 1998-99 Kosovo war that ended with a NATO intervention that pushed Serbian troops out of the former Serbian province.
BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbs on Tuesday erected more roadblocks in northern Kosovo and defied international demands to remove those placed earlier, a day after Serbia put its troops near the border on a high level of combat readiness.
The new barriers, made of laden trucks, were put up overnight in Mitrovica, a northern Kosovo town divided between Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who represent the majority in Kosovo as a whole.
It is the first time since the recent crisis started that Serbs have blocked streets in one of the main towns. Until now, barricades had been set on roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he ordered the army’s highest state of alert to “protect our people (in Kosovo) and preserve Serbia.”
He claimed that Pristina is preparing to “attack” Kosovo Serbs in the north of the country and remove by force several of the roadblocks that Serbs started putting up 18 days ago to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb policemen.
Kosovo officials have accused Vucic of using his state media to stir trouble and trigger incidents that would act as a pretext for an armed intervention in the former Serbian province.
Petar Petkovic, a Serbian government official in charge of contacts with Kosovo Serbs, told the Serbian state RTS TV that the combat readiness of Serb troops was introduced because Kosovo had done the same thing.
He claimed that heavily armed Kosovo units want to attack the Kosovo Serbs “with the intention of attacking our women, the elderly, children, men. Our people who at the barricades are just defending the right to live.”
Kosovo has asked NATO-led peacekeepers stationed there to remove the barricades and hinted that Pristina’s forces will do it if the KFOR force doesn’t react. Some 4,000 NATO-led peacekeepers have been stationed in Kosovo since the 1999 war that ended with Belgrade losing control over the territory.
Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would likely result in a clash with NATO forces and would mean a major escalation of tensions in the Balkans, which are still reeling from the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Tensions between Kosovo, which declared independence after a war in 2008, and Serbia have reached their peak over the past month. Western attempts to reach a negotiated settlement have failed, with Serbia refusing to recognize Kosovo’s statehood.
KFOR and the European Union have both asked Pristina and Belgrade to show restraint and avoid provocations.
Kosovo remains a potential flashpoint in the Balkans years after the 1998-99 Kosovo war that ended with a NATO intervention that pushed the Serbian troops out of the former Serbian province.
A war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday sentenced a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army to 26 years in prison for the war crimes of arbitrary detention, torture and murder.
The Salih Mustafa case was one overseen in part by now-special counsel Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor appointed last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee investigations in the US involving former President Donald Trump.
The panel of judges in the tribunal found Mustafa guilty of crimes that occurred in April 1999 in a village in Kosovo used as a base by a KLA unit that Mustafa led during the conflict with Serbian government forces.
Mustafa’s conviction is the first war crimes verdict in the Kosovo tribunal.
Victims who were ethnic Albanians were accused of being spies and collaborators, were held in inhumane conditions and subjected to beatings, mock executions to obtain forced confessions, and at least one died from the treatment at the hands of the militant group, according to the tribunal’s verdict.
The panel concluded that “the physical and psychological abuse, coupled with the inhumane and degrading conditions of detention, left the detainees with life-long injuries, both physical and psychological.”
Smith participated in the Mustafa trial before stepping down last month from his role as specialist prosecutor in the Kosovo tribunal after being tapped to oversee the Trump-related investigations in the US.
He remains in the Netherlands while he recovers from a bike injury and is expected to return to the US in the coming weeks.
“Today’s judgment represents a victory for justice and, in particular, for the victims of Salih Mustafa and their families, all Kosovar Albanians, whose personal tragedies have been at the heart of this case and who have suffered more than two decades on account of Mr. Mustafa’s actions,” said acting specialist prosecutor Alex Whiting, who took over the role from Smith, in a statement.
PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo police and the local media on Sunday reported explosions, shooting and road blocks overnight in the north of the country, where the population is mostly ethnic Serb, despite the postponement of the Dec. 18 municipal election the Serbs were opposed to. No injuries have been reported.
The European Union rule of law mission, known as EULEX, also reported that “a stun grenade was thrown at an EULEX reconnaissance patrol last night,” causing no injury or material damage.
EULEX, which has some 134 Polish, Italian and Lithuanian police officers deployed in the north, called on “those responsible to refrain from more provocative actions” and said it urged the Kosovo institutions “to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Unidentified masked men were seen on the Serb barricades that were blocking main roads leading to the border with Serbia, as Kosovo authorities closed two border crossings to all traffic and pedestrians.
On Sunday morning, the situation was calm, but with an increased presence of Kosovar Albanian police in the areas with a mixed population in the north, and more international police and soldiers elsewhere.
Recent tensions remain high, with Serbia and Kosovo intensifying their exchange of words.
Serbia’s president on Saturday said he would formally request permission from the NATO-led KFOR mission in Kosovo to deploy Serbian troops in northern Kosovo, while conceding this was most unlikely to be granted.
Recent tensions remain high, with Serbia and Kosovo intensifying their exchange of words.
Serbia’s president on Saturday said he would formally request NATO permission to deploy Serbian troops in northern Kosovo, while conceding this was most unlikely to be granted.
Serbian officials claim a U.N. resolution that formally ended the country’s bloody crackdown against majority Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999 allows for some 1,000 Serb troops to return to Kosovo. NATO bombed Serbia to end the war and push its troops out of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.
The NATO-led peacekeepers who have been working in Kosovo since the war would have to give a green light for Serb troops to go there, something that’s highly unlikely because it would de-facto mean handing over security of Kosovo’s Serb-populated northern regions to Serbian forces, a move that could dramatically increase tensions in the Balkans.
“We do not want a conflict. We want peace and progress but we shall respond to aggression with all our powers,’ Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti posted on social media.
Kurti told the European Union and the United States that not denouncing such violence, which he said was orchestrated by Belgrade, “would push it destabilize Kosovo.”
Tension in the north has been high this week ahead of the polls initially planned for Dec. 18. They have now been postponed to April 23 in an attempt to defuse the situation.
The election was due after ethnic Serb representatives resigned their posts in November to protest a decision by Kosovo’s government to ban Serbia-issued vehicle license plates.
Serb lawmakers, prosecutors and police officers also abandoned local government posts.
Tensions have been high in Kosovo ever since it proclaimed independence from Serbia, despite attempts by the European Union and U.S. officials to defuse them. Serbia, supported by its allies Russia and China, has refused to recognize Kosovo’s statehood.
Both Serbia and Kosovo want to join the EU but Brussels has warned they must resolve their dispute and normalize relations to be eligible for membership in the bloc.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the NATO-led mission in Kosovo “remains vigilant.”
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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania; Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade.
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Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
TIRANA, Albania — EU leaders and their Western Balkan counterparts gathered Tuesday for talks aimed at strengthening their partnership as Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens to reshape the geopolitical balance in the region.
The EU wants to use the one-day summit in Albania’s capital to tell leaders from Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia that they have futures within the wealthy economic bloc and give them concrete signs, rather than just promises, that they will join one day.
European Council President Charles Michel, who is jointly chairing the summit, hailed it as a “symbolic meeting” that will cement the futures of the six countries within Europe.
“I am absolutely convinced that the future of our children will be safe and more prosperous with the Western Balkans within the EU, and we are working very hard in order to make progress,” he told reporters.
As proof of the bloc’s commitment, Michel underscored EU energy support to the region in light of the war’s impact on supplies and prices, as well as a mobile telephone roaming charges agreement.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has been repeating that stepping up the bloc’s engagement with the six nations is more crucial than ever to maintaining Europe’s security.
As Europe’s relationship with Russia deteriorates further because of the war, tensions have also mounted in the Balkans and the EU wants to avoid other flashpoints close to its borders.
“The war is sending shockwaves, it affects everybody, and especially this region,” Borrell told reporters in Tirana, adding that the aim of the summit would be to mitigate the consequences of the war in a neighborhood that was torn by conflicts following the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
According to a draft of the declaration to be adopted at the summit, the EU will repeat “its full and unequivocal commitment to the European Union membership perspective of the Western Balkans” and call for an acceleration of accession talks with the incumbents.
In return, the EU expects full solidarity from its Western Balkans partners and wants them fully aligned with its foreign policies.
That particular point has been problematic with Serbia, whose president, Aleksandar Vucic, claims he wants to take Serbia into the European Union but has cultivated ties with Russia.
Although Serbia’s representatives voted in favor of various U.N. resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vucic has refused to explicitly condemn Moscow. His country has not joined Western sanctions against Russia over the war.
“The Western Balkans have decided to embark on the European path, this is a two-way street,” Borrell said. “And we also expect the region to deliver on key reforms, and certainly to show the will to embrace the European Union’s ambition and spirit. Many do, but we see also hesitations.”
Although the progress of the six nations toward EU membership had stalled recently, there has been some progress over the past few months.
This summer, the EU started membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia following years of delays. And Bosnia moved a small step closer on its path to joining the powerful economic bloc when the commission advised member countries in October to grant it candidate status despite continuing criticism of the way the nation is run.
Kosovo has only started the first step, with the signing of a Stabilization and Association Agreement. It said it would apply for candidate status later this month.
The EU last admitted a new member — Croatia, which is also part of the Balkans — in 2013. Before that, Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. With the withdrawal of the United Kingdom in 2021, the EU now has 27 member nations.
“We need the EU to move from words to deeds,” said Kosovo president Vjosa Osmani.
To help households and businesses weather the impact of Russia’s war on energy and food security, the EU has earmarked one billion euros in grants to the Western Balkans, hoping the money will encourage double the investment.
Leaders will also discuss migration issues that remains one of Europe’s biggest concerns in light of the number of migrants trying to enter the bloc without authorization via the Western Balkans, notably through Serbia.
The EU’s border agency Frontex said it had detected more than 22,300 attempted entries in October, nearly three times as many as a year ago.
Around 500 Frontex officers are working along the EU’s borders with Balkan nations but staff will soon be deployed inside the region itself. Serbia’s border with Hungary is a notorious hotspot. Late last month, a man was shot and wounded and a number of others were detained following reports of a clash between migrants in a town on the Serbian side of the border. Europol police agents will also be sent there.
One cause of the movements is that Serbia, which wants to join the EU, has not aligned its visa policies with the bloc. People from several countries requiring visas to enter the bloc arrive in Serbia without such paperwork then slip through. Many from Burundi, Tunisia, India, Cuba and Turkey enter the EU this way.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s president on Sunday granted citizenship to British pop star of Albanian origin Dua Lipa for what he said was the artist’s role in spreading Albanians’ fame internationally through her music.
President Bajram Begaj said Lipa was granted citizenship ahead of Albania’s 110th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Begaj said he considered it an honor to do so because Lipa has made Albanians famous throughout the world.
“I will be an Albanian with papers too,” Lipa said before taking her citizenship oath at Tirana city hall.
Lipa was born in London in 1995 to immigrant Albanian parents Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa from Kosovo.
Lipa, who started singing at five years old, was musically influenced by her father, a former singer and guitarist of a rock band. She started to post her songs in YouTube when she was 14. Her first debut studio album was released in 2017. In 2019 she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Together with her father, she co-founded the Sunny Hill Foundation in 2016 to raise funds with annual concerts held in her native Kosovo to help people experiencing financial difficulties.
“It is an indescribable great joy with such acceptance, love and everything,” said Lipa. The artist then took a passport photo, was fingerprinted and signed an application form for an identity hard and passport.
Lipa will wrap up her annual concert tour in Tirana’s main Skanderbeg Square on Monday to commemorate Independence Day.
