The heads of state or government of the EU Member States will discuss, on Thursday 29 June, the tensions and violence in the north of Kosovo (see EUROPE 13209/5).
The EU27 are expected to collectively reiterate the calls for de-escalation made by several of them in recent weeks, while the threat of measures against Belgrade and Pristina if no solution is found is growing.
“Failure to de-escalate tensions will have negative consequences. It is essential that the EU-facilitated dialogue led by the High Representative and the swift implementation of the Agreement on the path to normalisation and its Implementation Annex continue”, states the draft EU Council conclusions.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borell, announced, on Monday 26 June, that “political and financial” measures could be taken with regard to Serbia and Kosovo, but that only the Member States were authorised to take them.
For its part, the European Commission announced, on Tuesday 27 June, through Gert Jan Koopman, head of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, that it would be announcing measures against Pristina “within the week”.
“The Kosovo authorities have not responded to our requests. We are going to take a series of measures”, he said. These measures include “putting the bodies of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in brackets” and “suspending the programming of funds for Kosovo”.
“Proposals submitted by Kosovo via the investment framework will no longer be examined at this stage, and high-level events and visits will be suspended”, added Mr Koopman.
The organisation of new elections in the four Serb-majority municipalities, where Albanian mayors were elected at the end of April (see EUROPE 13168/7) and where violence has continued since the elected representatives took office (see EUROPE 13190/20), is presented by the EU as the main way out of the crisis.
To see the European Council’s draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/7s3 (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)