Current:Home > ScamsEU envoy urges Kosovo and Serbia to step up normalization efforts before the bloc’s June elections-LoTradeCoin
EU envoy urges Kosovo and Serbia to step up normalization efforts before the bloc’s June elections
View Date:2024-12-23 20:57:59
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The EU envoy for the Western Balkans on Tuesday urged Kosovo and Serbia to push ahead with faltering normalization talks before elections for the European Parliament in June.
Miroslav Lajcak met for three hours with Kosovo’s top leaders — President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi — in the capital Pristina after visiting Belgrade a day earlier.
“We don’t even have to ask ourselves how to do it (the agreement). The question is when to do it. And, of course, if you ask me, I would say without delay, as soon as possible,” Lajcak told journalists.
The EU and the United States are pressing both countries to implement agreements that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kurti reached in February and March.
The 27 member states of the European Union will hold EU parliamentary elections in June, while the United States goes to the polls in November, Lajcak pointed out, adding: “That means the attention, of course, later this year will be focused on these processes.”
The EU-facilitated normalization talks have failed to make progress, especially following a shootout last September between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and ratcheted up tensions in the region.
Both Serbia and Kosovo have said they want to join the EU, but EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said their refusal to compromise is jeopardizing their chances for membership.
Lajcak mentioned as positive signs for both countries applying a deal on the payment of the energy consumed in Kosovo’s north, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives, and recognizing each-others car number plates.
Serbian forces fought a 1998-99 war with ethnic Albanian separatists in what was then the province of Kosovo. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008, but the government in Belgrade does not recognize its neighbor as a separate country.
veryGood! (713)
Related
- World leaders aim to shape Earth's future at COP29 climate change summit
- Climate activists disrupt traffic in Boston to call attention to fossil fuel policies
- U.S. offers nearly half-a-million Venezuelan migrants legal status and work permits following demands from strained cities
- Shannen Doherty, battling cancer, gets emotional after standing ovation at Florida 90s Con
- John Krasinski named People's Sexiest Man Alive for 2024
- The Roman Empire is all over TikTok: Are the ways men and women think really that different?
- Beshear says sports wagering is off to strong start in Kentucky, with the pace about to pick up
- Wisconsin DNR board appointees tell Republican lawmakers they don’t support wolf population limit
- NCT DREAM enters the 'DREAMSCAPE': Members on new album, its concept and songwriting
- 'My friends did everything right': Injured Grand Canyon hiker says he was not abandoned on trail
Ranking
- Larry Hobbs, who guided AP’s coverage of Florida news for decades, has died at 83
- See Kim Kardashian Officially Make Her American Horror Story: Delicate Debut
- Beshear says sports wagering is off to strong start in Kentucky, with the pace about to pick up
- Sophie Turner is suing Joe Jonas for allegedly refusing to let her take their kids to the U.K.
- How Ben Affleck Really Feels About His and Jennifer Lopez’s Movie Gigli Today
- 2 JetBlue planes reportedly struck by lasers near Boston, FAA says
- College football picks for Week 4: Predictions for Top 25 schedule filled with big games
- Sophie Turner sues to force estranged husband Joe Jonas to turn over children’s passports
Recommendation
-
RHOBH's Kyle Richards Shares Reaction to BFF Teddi Mellencamp's Divorce
-
Good American's Rare Friends & Family Sale Is Here: Don't Miss Up to 80% Off on All Things Denim and More
-
Meet the Incredibly Star-Studded Cast of The Traitors Season 2
-
As mayors, governors scramble to care for more migrants, a look at what’s behind the numbers
-
Wicked's Ethan Slater Shares How Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Set the Tone on Set
-
Manslaughter charge added against Connecticut teen who crashed into police cruiser, killed officer
-
Iranian court gives a Tajik man 2 death sentences for an attack at a major Shiite shrine
-
Biden to announce new military aid package for Ukraine as Zelenskyy visits Washington