Next week, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, is expected to submit a report regarding the possibility of lifting measures against Kosovo.
This report is to be submitted to member states, which will then assess whether the conditions for lifting the measures, imposed by the EU last year, have been met.
It remains unclear whether Borrell will explicitly recommend the lifting of the measures, which would aid in making a decision in this direction, reports RTK.
Diplomatic sources clarify that everything will depend on the terminology and approach that the head of European diplomacy will use in the report.
If he refers only to the requests that the EU presented to the authorities in Pristina in June of last year, which were related to steps toward de-escalation connected with the electoral process in the four northern municipalities, then these sources consider that a recommendation for lifting the measures is possible.
However, recent actions related to police operations in Serbian financial institutions in the north are expected to be mentioned in the report. This has been confirmed earlier by EU spokesperson Peter Stano. However, everything will depend on the context in which these operations are mentioned.
Sources informed about the compilation of the report warn that the measures were imposed for specific reasons, and any recommendation for their removal should be based precisely on those reasons.
The submission of the report, even with a clear recommendation, does not imply an immediate lifting of the measures. This report will only serve the member states to bring this issue back to the agenda and in the coming period, to start considering the possibility of lifting the measures.
Borrell’s report was requested by the ambassadors of the EU member states, in the first debate where the lifting of the measures was discussed, a few days after the repeated vote in the north, which was held on April 21. At that time, most member states expressed support for lifting the measures, and the only uncertainty was related to whether the measures should be lifted completely or gradually.
The measures against Kosovo were imposed in mid-June last year as a reaction from Brussels to the escalation of the security situation in the north of Kosovo, following local elections in the four northern municipalities.
Among other things, meetings with Kosovar officials were suspended, except for those addressing the crisis; meetings within the framework of the Stabilization and Association Agreement were suspended; funds from pre-accession instruments were suspended; and projects submitted by Kosovo within the Western Balkans Investment Framework were not considered.
