Acting Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla announced that she participated in the ministerial meeting “Friends of the Western Balkans” in Vienna, where she emphasized the need for concrete measures against Serbia following the terrorist attack in Banjska, as well as the lifting of the measures imposed on Kosovo.
She underlined the importance of a just and principled response to the attack and its perpetrators.
“The unfair measures against Kosovo must be lifted. The aggressive and paramilitary attack in Banjska must result in real consequences for Serbia and for its organizers, including Milan Radoičić, who must face justice in Kosovo,” Gërvalla stated.
The Acting Minister also raised the issue of the treatment of Kosovar citizens at the border, highlighting that the degrading treatment of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo at the Serbia–Kosovo border — from baseless detentions to arbitrary arrests by Serbian authorities — violates European principles and the minimum standards of human rights and freedom of movement.
Gërvalla further stressed that dialogue with Serbia only makes sense if it ends with mutual recognition.
“During the ministerial meeting ‘Friends of the Western Balkans’ in Vienna, invited by Austria’s Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, and in the presence of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Kaja Kallas, I underlined that dialogue with Serbia makes sense only if it concludes with mutual recognition between the two states,” she wrote on Facebook.
Among other points, Gërvalla emphasized that Kosovo’s security and its European future cannot be treated separately.
“Kosovo has already demonstrated in practice where it stands in relation to Euro-Atlantic values. It is now up to the European Union to translate this reality into concrete steps in the enlargement process,” she declared.
