Stano: Five Westerners head to Pristina, Belgrade to make tangible progress

EU and US envoys, as well as security advisers of leaders of France, Germany and Italy, will come to Pristina and Belgrade on Saturday aimed at making tangible progress” in implementing the Ohrid Agreement and reducing tensions, especially after events in Banjska in northern Kosovo.

So European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told the Beta news agency.

Stano said Miroslav Lajcak, Gabriel Escobar and the security advisers of the president of France, German Chancellor and prime minister of Italy, Emmanuel Bonn, Jens Pletner and Francesco Tallo will go to talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq “with clear expectations that the two sides will continue the process of normalising relations and implement their obligations without delay and without conditions<1>.

“at the same time, Serbian authorities must do everything to whiteen the background, authors and organisers of violence in Banjska”, said EU High Representative spokesman Josep Borrell.

Because, according to him, Pristina and Belgrade should remember that the European Union, its members and the US continue to provide strong support for resolving relations between Kosovo and Serbia and the European future of the entire region.

At the same time, European diplomatic sources told Beta that senior officials of key Western countries are going to Pristina and Belgrade with the demand not only to halt escalation in Kosovo, but also “literally, as soon as possible, to organise municipal elections in the north with the participation of Kosovo Serbs and specifically to start implementing the Brussels Agreement for the Founding of the Community of Serbian Communities<1>.

Diplomats at the EU headquarters particularly stressed that the five top Western officials are asking Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to organise the new municipal elections in northern Kosovo as soon as possible, the easiest way to be the resignation of current and unconditional heads, as well as to accept the obligation to establish association.

Belgrade, at the same time, must testify that it has not been directly or indirectly involved in the events in Banjska, “and so far there is no evidence that Serbian authorities were, but neither did they know what was being prepared there”, sources in Brussels revealed.

“Vucciq must do so quickly because there is no endless patience in the European Union, and some measures are already being discussed in European circles if Belgrade does not do what is expected”, European diplomatic sources said.