Brussels, 08/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 8 December, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn called on the parties in Kosovo to refrain from violence.
“I urge everybody to avoid violence, to refrain (from) violence and to have better arguments”, Hahn said on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels between the leaders of the Serbian and Kosovan chambers of commerce. “In democracy” there should be an “exchange of words and arguments, and not violence”, he said. This is “something everybody has to learn, also in the run up of the European perspective”, he continued.
Violence continues in Kosovo, with the opposition pushing for the agreements to be abandoned that enable the normalisation of relations with Syria (see EUROPE 11443). On Monday 7 December, unidentified people opened fire on a house and set fire to a car in a village in Kosovo mainly inhabited by Serbs, and a memorial to Serbs killed during the war in 1998-1999 was also damaged.
Elsewhere, Hahn hailed the cooperation, which is stronger than a simple dialogue, between the two chambers of commerce. “It's all about economic development. This depends on initiatives from private persons and companies, to create jobs and business opportunities. Business opportunities are only possible if there is cooperation across borders”, Hahn stated. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)