The Serbian government continued to take hits this week, following a joint letter from some 50 MPs and 10 EU parliamentary committees, with European External Action Service (EEAS) spokesperson Peter Stano appearing to threaten “measures” against Serbia if de-escalation between Serbia and Kosovo does not take place.
Speaking at a press conference Aug. 10, Stano noted that “measures” had already been taken against Kosovo for a failure to de-escalate, and now Serbia could face the same.
“If the [EU] member states find that, in the current atmosphere, in the current context of this latest crisis, Serbia is not doing anything in order to de-escalate [such measures could be taken],” Stano said, as reported by N1.rs.info.
Noteworthy is that Stano said this following the aforementioned letter, which was addressed to the EU and the US, which stated unequivocally that both had effectively given Serbia preferential treatment of late in what has been a constant crisis since late last year. That letter ignored EU and US calls for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to implement new elections in North Kosovo, following elections boycotted by ethnic Serbs, which resulted in ethnic-Albanian mayor chosen in four districts on the back of voter turnout of only approximately 3.5 percent.
Likewise, Kurti was criticized for the sometimes heavy-handed, largely ethnic-Albanian police force in the region.
That said, with the open letter—which also caused friction in Serbian-Ukrainian relations—the PR momentum has seemed to swing back against Serbia and
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who has stubbornly held firm to a refusal to turn his back on ethnic Serbs in Kosovo or to agree to recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.
Photo from the 2022 North Kosovo crisis by Voice of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
