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.
"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.” Violence in north 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.
Lajcak said the EU also wanted Serbia, which north 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.
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