The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, called, on Thursday 29 December, for urgent progress in the Serbia-Kosovo Dialogue, while on the same day members of the Serb minority in northern Kosovo began to remove the barricades they had erected three weeks ago (see EUROPE 13082/8).
“Diplomacy prevailed in the easing of tensions in northern Kosovo. Violence can never be a solution. (...) We now need urgent progress in the dialogue”, he warned. No date has been announced for a future meeting of the EU-facilitated Dialogue.
The developments of recent weeks “show how important it is to make real and irreversible progress on normalisation of the relations between Kosovo and Serbia on the basis of the EU proposal”, explained European External Action Service spokesperson Nabila Massrali on Tuesday 3 January. She stressed the need to implement fully the agreements already reached “without delay”, starting with the return of Kosovo Serbs to the institutions in northern Kosovo and the start of discussions on the Association of Serbian Municipalities.
Massrali recalled that the situation on the ground remained “very fragile”. She said that the EU expected all stakeholders to exercise restraint and maintain calm and avoid any action that could lead to an escalation or violence.
On 28 December, before the barricades were dismantled, the EU and the US had already called for “maximum restraint”, and “to take immediate action to unconditionally de-escalate the situation, and to refrain from provocations, threats, or intimidation”.
“We welcome the assurances of the leadership of Kosovo confirming that no lists of Kosovo Serb citizens to be arrested or prosecuted for peaceful protests/barricades exist”, Ms Massrali and US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a joint statement. They also recalled that the Rule of law must be respected and that any form of violence was unacceptable and will not be tolerated. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)