The German ambassador to Serbia Thomas Schieb told N1 morning programme on Thursday that the meeting of the Western Balkans leaders in Berlin was planned at the initiative by Germany and France for quite some time, proving the region had a high priority.
European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in Washington on Wednesday that the United States and European Union want to bring the Western Balkans into the EU.
Our shared goal on both sides of the Atlantic is to stabilize the region and bring all six Western Balkan countries into the EU based on established conditions. That’s in our geopolitical self-interest,” he wrote on his Twitter account from a meeting of the Atlantic Council.
''The Alliance for Serbia supports the idea of creating an Alliance for Kosovo and Metohija – a sister organization, so that the voices of the Kosovo Serbs can be heard much more often and for them to be able to have a decisive influence on Serbia’s policy towards Kosovo, '' the Alliance for Serbia and a delegation of opposition political representatives of Kosovo Serbs announced during a joint conference yesterday, reports portal KoSSev.
The Commander of the US Bondsteel base in Kosovo Colonel Roy Macaraeg denied on Wednesday rumors that 500 Albanian soldiers would be positioned in the KFOR Nothing Hill camp in the north and said that 70-strong international force would remain there, the FoNet news agency reported.
The Colonel said that some 800 US, Polish, Turkish and Albanian soldiers were stationed in Bondsteel.
The head of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo Milovan Drecun said the decision to call local elections in the north of Kosovo was Pristina’s intention to void the majority's will of the Serbs and “to install” individuals from the Serb nation, the Beta news agency reported on Wednesday.
Speaking to the public service Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), Drecun said that “the situation among the Serbs could be complicated after this election and Pristina could use that as an excuse to intervene.”
The Union of Serbia’s army said late on Tuesday that because it was not satisfied with the work of Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, the military would not violently change the regime, but neither would it ever go against its people, the Beta news agency reported.
The Union’s statement also called on the respective institutions and President Aleksandar Vucic to immediately prevent Vulin’s “subversive, criminal, fascist and anti-constitutional actions.”
The European Union is not investing strong efforts to resolve the Kosovo-Serbia problem and stimulate reforms in the Western Balkans, but it still wants to stabilize the region, the Beta news agency was told at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Diplomatic sources told the news agency that the EU’s strategic goal is the security, political and economic stabilization of the Western Balkans.
Bosnian Serb leader and tripartite Presidency Chairman, Milorad Dodik, redrew the borders between Bosnia and Serbia, saying that some kind of integration between Serbia, Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity and what he said is a Serb-dominated part of Montenegro must happen in the future.
“I know it won’t happen right now, but I'm sure it will happen in this century. One doesn’t have to be a genius to know that conditions will be met for this. This is our political wish,” Dodik told the Serbian Espreso.rs portal.
Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister said on Monday the European Union-facilitated Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on normalisation of relations would not resume until Kosovo’s import tariffs were in place, the Beta news agency reported.
The dialogue has been on hold since last November after Kosovo introduced the 100 percent import tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and has been refusing to suspend or lift them despite pressure from the international community.
The spokesperson for NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR), Vincenzo Grasso, said there are no indications that the situation in Kosovo’s northern part could turn violent and that the only destabilisation comes from “speculations” spread by certain individuals and some media.