FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The European Union's special envoy for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, and the US special envoy for the Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, are expected to visit Kosovo and Serbia next week, more precisely on Monday and Tuesday.
Their visit will have two main goals: The first goal is to find a solution to get out of the current situation which risks damaging everything that the EU considers as success in the dialogue. So, the focus will first be on reducing tensions and continuing efforts based on what has been proposed after the meeting in Moldova.
While the second goal will be the continuation of the work in sequencing the steps to implement the agreement reached in Brussels and the annex on which the parties agreed in Ohrid.
The European Union had called the reaching of the agreement on the path towards the normalization of relations as an "exit from the phase of crisis management to a phase of normalization". However, due to the escalation of the situation in the north of Kosovo in recent days, the activity of the EU has turned to crisis management.
Diplomats in the EU say that it must be ensured that the recent tensions in the north do not endanger the agreement reached, therefore they call for the tensions to decrease immediately and without anyone so that the parties can return to the dialogue and the normalization process.
Protests in three municipalities in the north of Kosovo, an area inhabited by a majority of Serbs, began on May 26, when groups of local Serbs gathered in front of municipal buildings to protest against the entry of the new Albanian mayors of Zveçan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviç. The escalation in northern Kosovo culminated on Monday, May 29, when KFOR peacekeeping troops intervened in Zveçan "to avoid clashes between the parties and to minimize the risk of escalation", and were attacked by several violent protesters, which the government of Kosovo says they were "Serbian criminal gangs".
From this fight, 30 KFOR soldiers were injured. The United States and allies said that the use of force undermines efforts to normalize Kosovo-Serbia relations and called for calming the situation.
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