Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić called for regional stability on Tuesday 18 December, as Kosovo introduced taxes against Serbian and Bosnian products in November and announced the creation of an army.
"Serbia has not introduced any countermeasures. We will remain reasonable and continue to call for regional stability", she stressed at a press conference after the 5th EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Council. She called on Pristina to back down, calling these measures “contrary to European values.” "Without a stable region, no country in the region can be stable", she added.
The Prime Minister estimated that Kosovo's taxes would cost her country €65.6 million by the end of the year and, if they were maintained, more than half a billion euros per year.
She also considered that the establishment of an army in Kosovo was “the single biggest threat to regional stability and peace.”
Continuing her criticism, Ms Brnabić recalled that Pristina had still not established the Community of Serbian Municipalities, provided for in the 2013 agreement.
At the Council, the EU and Serbia also reviewed the country's accession process. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said Belgrade could move even faster along its European path, particularly by implementing the reforms adopted. In its communiqué, the Stabilisation and Association Council encouraged Serbia to achieve results in terms of the rule of law and democratic governance, including in the judicial system and the prosecution of war crimes, freedom of expression and the fight against corruption and organised crime, and on elections.
Ms Mogherini reiterated her wish that Belgrade should gradually align itself with the EU's Foreign and Security Policy.
Ms Brnabić acknowledged that her country could be even more effective in implementing reforms, while citing the progress already achieved, in economic terms, on public administration reform and the priority given to the rule of law. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)