In an interview with Klan Kosova, Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj spoke about the decision to impose a ten percent tax on products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said Serbia imports hundreds of millions of euros worth of products to Kosovo while it maintains a ‘hostile’ approach to Kosovo the most serious part of which are threats and intimidation against Serb members of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF). He said such actions cannot go “unpunished”. He said Bosnia and Herzegovina also has a similar hostile approach to Kosovo. All of this, Haradinaj said, contributed to Kosovo adopting the recent economic measures towards the two countries. “If the EU cannot discipline Serbia and allow all these actions… we have to act in our interest and protect it.”
Haradinaj also spoke about the idea of border correction or land swap between Kosovo and Serbia which he said is nothing more than part of the scenario for partition of Kosovo. “Everyone knows that this will not work in the Balkans. No one is happy with the [current] borders but if they open no one knows where they’ll stop,” he said adding that the idea does not enjoy any serious support. “I can assure you Kosovo had and has enough capable people to prevent anyone from playing with its territory,” Haradinaj stated.
On the issue of visa liberalisation, Haradinaj said he still believes a positive decision will be taken by the end of the year. He said all EU countries know there is no valid threat of migration influx from the people of Kosovo and underlined that the decision is now a matter of political will. He said that he sees no reason why the issue of visa liberalisation for Kosovo should not be included in the agenda of the European Council. “I see no problems with the votes but I do see a problem with it not being included in the agenda. It is wrong to suggest this needs to be resolved in dialogue [with Serbia],” Haradinaj said.
Asked about how the future army of Kosovo would look like, Haradinaj responded that it will look like any other army and will consist of three infantry regiments with one being stationed in the region of Gjilan, the other to the south and the third to the north of Kosovo.
