Could you please comment on the EU response to the escalation in Kosovo?
Since the beginning of the current round of escalation, Brussels has tried to maintain a low profile in public. The content of the brief statement issued on 26 May 2023 by Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy of the European External Action Service, was predictable: the EU has routinely completely omitted the genesis of today's crisis which, indeed, has not come out of the blue but is rather a result of years of Western "work" whose key elements include totally ignoring the interests of the Serbian population living in the north of the povince, unconditionally indulging the province's so-called "authorities" and disregarding the 2013 Brussels agreements that envisaged establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities.
The developments we are witnessing now are a direct consequence of the unscrupulous fulfilment by the EU mediators of their obligations, namely their principled unwillingness to contribute to a real search for lasting solutions. The EU mediation in the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue has been essentially reduced to a feverish tossing around in attempts to "extinguish the fire" without tackling its real causes. It is further confirmed by a statement made on 30 May 2023 by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell who, in his usual manner of not calling things what they are, announced he is working on convening an urgent Dialogue meeting with the participation of the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajčák. In other words, Brussels, creating the illusion of mediation, was waiting for another escalation to take a kind of heroic attempt to put the crisis "on hold". However, these “on hold” periods are getting shorter and the crisis stages are becoming more and more explosive.
We remind the EU that formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities in the province, as originally enshrined in written agreements between Belgrade and Pristina and guaranteed by Brussels, remains the key objective.
