The Kosovo measures report is postponed for next week?

These sources have said the presentation of this report is now expected to take place on 19 June at the EU Committee for Policy and Security meeting. But even this is just <x0-tentative” because there can be no guarantee that this will happen.

The restrictive measures against Kosovo were imposed a year ago, as a result of the escalation of the security situation in northern Kosovo, when official Pristina sent the elected mayoral buildings to the elections that were boycotted by Serbs.

The measures included: the provisional suspension of working groups for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Kosovo's failure to meet high and the suspension of bilateral visits.

Also suspended was Kosovo's funding programming, which were meant to be delivered through the Western Balkans Investment Framework and IPA 2024 ( Pre-Accession Intrusions).

Following punitive measures, Kosovo remained outside the grants the EU approved in July last year, worth 2.1 billion euros.

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi has said on Thursday that European Union for Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell's report on steps Kosovo has made in meeting the obligations for removing EU measures, “will be recommended to lift Kosovo's<x1 revenge measures.

Reporting before the Commission for European Integration in Pristina on Thursday, Bislim stressed that Borrell's report has been “ready since April, but there have been several hesitations” for his surrender.

The report on steps Kosovo has made to reduce tensions in the country's north by the chief of EU diplomacy had asked member states to be assessed if conditions are ripe for Kosovo to remove measures.

EU spokesman for foreign policy and security Peter Stano goes on for weeks to say that “raport is in the final phase” and that member states “will soon be handed over.

There is officially no explanation for the reasons for the delay in handing over the high representative's report, Borrell. However, unofficially from diplomatic sources in the EU it is taught that problems have been presented by the European Commission. According to these sources, the Commission wants “to clarify several points of the report”.

EU member states had demanded that the report become “as soon as possible”, but its surrender was postponed several times also due to the actions of Kosovo authorities in closing Serbia's Post Savings Bank facilities in the northern part of Kosovo. These actions were described as one-sided and uncoordinated “with potential to foster tensions”.

On May 20th, 2024, authorities in Kosovo have conducted a police operation on Serbian financial institutions in northern Kosovo, resulting in the closure of six facilities of the Post and People's Bank of Serbia in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, inhabited by Serb majority.

During the action, which Kosovo authorities have described as a measure for setting “order and legitimacy”, various evidence has been confiscated, including money.

The “The measures were set as a consequence of Kosovo's uncoordinated, unilateral actions that led to the exiting of the situation. They were set in order to motivate Kosovo authorities to take steps for expansion. So, of course, whatever has a negative impact on the ground and in the effort to stress is being taken into account and getting involved in the report”, Stano had said.

When the debate over measures against Kosovo was held on the Committee for Policy and Security, where the member states' diplomats are, most had proposed that those measures be completely removed, while some states were gradually removed. But now diplomats expect to see what will be included in Borrell's report so that they can express their positions.

As far as the contents of the report are concerned, EU sources do not want to prejudge, but say that <x0) expectations are to be proposed to remove measures”, though they are not sure if full removal or just gradual removal will be required. /REL/