Stano: Bridges usually unite people, but unfortunately that of Ibër is an explosive issue.

The Ibër Bridge has become the main topic of discussion in recent days.

This is due to the Kosovo government's warning of its opening for cars.

However, the government's idea has not been supported by Kosovo's international partners (EUQuint).

EU Commission spokesman Peter Stano, though acknowledging that bridges are for unification of people, says Ibri's is “explosive and problematic questions”. Therefore, he says, it must be resolved through dialogue.

The bridges usually unite people. Unfortunately, the situation we have in northern Kosovo and in Mitrovica is the result of a large number of difficult political circumstances. So we've always said it's an explosive issue, a problem issue, and like all problem issues, it has to be solved with dialogue. Because if you have a problem, then you solve it with dialogue, not with unilateral decisions”, Stano said in an interview for the Serbian media N1.

He said last week, all of Kosovo's (European Union, Quinnt) friends went to Prime Minister Albin Kurti and told him: “don't do that, don't make unilateral moves, don't open the” Bridge.

But he seems determined to do so. So we said, "No, there will be very negative effects." We ask authorities to prevent and avoid steps that will lead to greater confrontation and escalation. Because it hurts people on the ground and it hurts you too, because Kosovo is under EU measures and under certain US measures because of the repeat and proven enterprise of movements leading to escalation”.

“does not help anyone, rather, greatly negatively affect a large number of people”, Stano said.

Furthermore, he said the European Union is not an intrusive force.

We don't want to impose on our partners things that the people, the local population, might consider to be interference in internal affairs. That's why we work as mediator in dialogue. The mediator is like a good teacher trying to get two stubborn students to achieve any results. In this case, they start treating each other normally”.

We can't force them. If they don't want us to be sorry. They will not advance, but will punish themselves and punish their people and not approach the EU. Because they themselves said: We want to be part of your European club. Then the European Union said: All right. These are the conditions and please fill them out. If you don't fill in, you won't be part of the” club.

Serbia and Kosovo have said they want membership. Then you have to follow the rules and regulations say good neighbourly relations are required. If you don't have them, you should work for reconciliation and normalisation. We'll help you. And we keep helping because we believe it can work. It has already worked with other members now in the EU, but since before they have fought wars far more brutal than that between Serbs and Kosovars. And we did it. But this requires courage, maturity and requires political leadership, which would achieve the necessary compromise. That's what we're trying to help both sides achieve. But we won't force them. Because if they don't want it, then we can't want reconciliation between Kosovo and Serbia more than Kosovo and Serbia love and their leaders. Therefore we can only help and advise, but we cannot force or force them to do so”, the EU spokesman said.

Regarding recent developments in the north, such as closing the illegal points of Serbia's Post, Stano said that “the problem we see more and more in dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is that we are constantly in crisis resolution mode,”.

And that, according to him, is not good. Because we have hoped at the beginning of this mandate, when we have initiated continuing dialogue, that we will have progress, that we will be able to help Kosovo and Serbia achieve progress in normalisation. Unfortunately, we see more and more unilateral movements and uncoordinated actions. Unfortunately, most of them come from the administration in Pristina. The raids, or the closure of eight Serbian post branches in northern Kosovo, are very unfortunate and is a violation of the dialogue agreement -- unilaterally, uncoordinated, with negative impact on the local population. Therefore, we ask the authorities to reconsider their decision and turn to dialogue with constructive ideas on how to solve their problem. They point out their reasons for dealing with such actions. We want to see commitment and dialogue instead of unilateral actions”, Peter Stano has said.