The European Union expressed concern on Sunday about the recent closure of several parallel Serbian municipalities in Kosovo and called on the Kosovar authorities to address this issue in negotiations with Serbia in the dialogue mediated by the bloc.
In recent weeks, Kosovar authorities closed four parallel Serbian municipalities in Dragash, Peja, Istog, and Klina.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Xhelal Sveçla, said on February 2 after their closure that “the time of lawlessness is over, and Serbia’s only institution within the Republic of Kosovo will be its embassy in Pristina”.
In a statement to the media on Sunday, the EU said that “the sudden closure of these offices will have negative consequences on the daily lives and living conditions of Serbian communities in Kosovo, as it will restrict their access to basic social services given the lack of alternatives at this time”.
The German Ambassador to Pristina, Jörn Rohde, supported the EU’s reaction and said that “unilateral measures only add fuel to the fire”, and that they are “the opposite of reducing tensions”.
In late January, Sveçla also announced the raiding of a Serbian non-governmental organization located in an annex of the Police Station Center in Pristina for what he described as illegal activities and endangerment of Kosovo’s security.
In Kosovo, there are municipalities, public companies, and enterprises, kindergartens, primary, secondary, and public universities financed directly by the Government of Serbia, which are located in cities and settlements where the Serbian community lives.
These institutions are illegal according to Kosovo laws.
In 2013, Kosovo and Serbia, in the Brussels dialogue for the normalization of relations, reached an agreement to abolish parallel institutions, but this agreement has not yet been fully implemented.
The EU called on Kosovo to discuss the issue of parallel municipalities, which is linked to the establishment of an Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, in the dialogue led by the 27-member bloc.
“The status of these structures is envisaged to be resolved through dialogue facilitated by the EU, regarding the establishment of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority,” the statement said.
In October 2023, representatives of the EU, the United States, Germany, France, and Italy presented the draft statute for the establishment of the Association to the parties, Kosovo and Serbia, which Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, accepted in principle.
However, following the statement by the EU’s Special Envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajčák, that the status issue is an internal matter of Kosovo, Kurti said that Kosovo also needs to be the author of that document.
He suggested writing it in collaboration with his Minister for Communities and Returns, Nenad Rašić, and that of Local Government, Elbert Krasniqi.
Later, Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani also said that Pristina should write a statute in cooperation with the United States.
The European Union urged Kosovo to avoid “unilateral actions that may provoke tensions and to address these issues through dialogue facilitated by the EU”.
Late on Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Pristina, Jeff Hovenier, said that the recent actions of the Kosovo Government, regarding the Serbian dinar and the closure of parallel Serbian municipalities, are unnecessarily increasing ethnic tensions and as a result, limiting the United States’ ability to support it in the international arena.
