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EU Wants Concrete Steps to Ease Kosovo Tensions Before Lifting Sanctions,
Envoy Says

by Reuters

   PRISTINA -- The European Union will not lift political and economic
   sanctions on Kosovo unless the government de-escalates tensions with
   ethnic Serbs, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak said on Tuesday during a visit
   in Pristina.

   EU countries imposed punitive measures on ethnic Albanian-majority
   Kosovo after Prime Minister Albin Kurti's government failed to heed EU
   and U.S. requests to defuse strife in the country's north following the
   worst clashes in over a decade.

   The measures include halting visits by Kosovo officials to the EU and a
   suspension of a large part of EU economic aid to the small Balkan
   republic, and Brussels has warned of further measures if Kurti does not
   act to ease the tensions.

   "My wish is not to have sanctions," Lajcak told reporters in Pristina
   after a three-hour meeting with Kurti. "The purpose of this mission, of
   course, and the discussion that we are having, is to get to the stage
   when these measures will be stopped."

   In a statement, Kurti said he told Lajcak that "the EU's punitive
   measures against Kosovo are unfair and make the dialogue asymmetrical."

   Violence in northern Kosovo, where 50,000 Serbs live and form a local
   majority, erupted in late May after ethnic Albanian mayors took office
   following a local election boycotted by Serbs demanding implementation
   of a decade-old deal for more autonomy.

   Some 30 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in
   northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters, and 52
   Serbs were hurt.

   Lajcak said the EU also wanted Serbia, to which northern Kosovo Serbs
   still devote their allegiance 15 years after Pristina declared
   independence from Belgrade, to act constructively to defuse the crisis
   or face penalties as well.

   "The European Union has made it clear that it has sanctions also ready
   for Serbia and that they will be implemented if the member states
   decide that Serbia is not complying with the EU request," said Lajcak,
   who will travel to Belgrade on Wednesday.

   The United States and European Union, Kosovo's main allies, have mainly
   held Kurti responsible for tensions in the north for having installed
   four ethnic Albanian mayors in their offices with police protection
   despite objections from local Serbs.