Cholls for FT: Kosovo must give Serbian citizens more autonomy

The first step would be for Serbia and Kosovo to normalise relations, even without full reciprocal recognition, as other countries have done, the official said after visiting Belgrade and Pristina for the first time this week.

“At least as an initial step is a way of putting Kosovo on the Euro-Atlantic road in which we want to see”, Chollet said, stating that for such a thing both sides must show readiness for compromise.

While Serbs will eventually have to accept a certain level of sovereignty, Kosovo must grant its ethnic Serb citizens more autonomy, especially the formal association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo, the official explains.

Chollet said he had told Kosovo's prime minister at the early meeting that there is a <x0 large emergency” to establish this body and that the “a understand its importance”.

He confirms that the US is aware of Russia's devastating “rol, which has consistently declared its support for Serbia” and that Serbia has long been dependent on Russian energy sources, but has also begun to diversify its energy resources and reduce its dependence.

Following the recent tensions in northern Kosovo, Chollet said the US is increasing diplomatic pressure on Belgrade and Pristina not to allow “rapes not to give metastase”.

The last thing any one of us wants now is a crisis in this part of the world, given that we have the biggest crisis since World War II, not far from us”, he said, and added that the US does not want the crisis, but Belgrade and Pristina start linking an agreement based on the EU proposal.

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