Borrell, crisis meeting between Kosovo and Serbia next week

2023-06-15 18:20:23, Kosova & Bota CNA

Borrell, crisis meeting between Kosovo and Serbia next week

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, has said on Thursday that he will invite the representatives of Kosovo and Serbia next week in Brussels, an urgent meeting for crisis management.

Borrell made this statement on the eve of a meeting with NATO ministers.

"Cooperation between the European Union and NATO goes beyond Ukraine. For example, in Kosovo in recent days it was seen how important this cooperation is and I would like to thank KFOR and the commander of KFOR for the work they are doing in the north of Kosovo", said Borrell.

"You know that there was an incident with the arrest of three policemen from Kosovo and we are trying to understand what exactly happened. We are in close contact with the KFOR Command and with both sides, in order to see what exactly happened that led to this arrest".

On June 14, the Kosovo authorities said that three of its police officers were kidnapped by the Serbian authorities, near the border point.

Serbia, on the other hand, has said that it has arrested the Kosovo policemen, deep in the Serbian territory.

Speaking about the current situation in Kosovo, Borrell said that, currently, everything has returned to the crisis management phase and will invite the parties to an urgent meeting.

"We must call for calm on the ground. Seeing the situation getting worse, we are back in the crisis management phase. I will invite the two parties, Kosovo and Serbia, for a crisis management meeting next week in Brussels," Borrell declared.

Some diplomatic sources have told Radio Free Europe that it is about a meeting between the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti and the President of Serbia, Aleksandër Vucic.

It has not been specified whether this meeting will be organized within the dialogue between the two countries mediated by the EU.

According to the measures that the EU has taken towards Kosovo - due to Pristina's inaction to reduce tensions - the meetings between the representatives of Kosovo and the EU will be limited only to meetings that focus on calming the situation in the north of Kosovo. .

Tensions in the north of Kosovo have been high since May 26, when the new Albanian mayors of the municipalities in the north entered the municipal buildings.

Local Serbs have opposed something like this and have been protesting continuously in front of municipal buildings since May 29./ REL