Saturday

2nd Dec 2023

'Breakthrough' EU deal greeted by tomato-throwers in Kosovo

Kosovo negotiator Edita Tahiri was greeted by tomato-pelting protesters and riot police at Pristina airport on Saturday (3 September) after coming back from Brussels with an EU-brokered deal on customs stamps.

The unrest forced the deputy prime minister to hide in the airport terminal for over one hour as officers from the Rosu special police unit clashed with activists from the Vetevendosje opposition party outside. The police made 34 arrests and beat people, including two Vetevendosje MPs, with some requiring medical treatment from ambulances on the scene.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Vetevendosje sticker on a traffic light in Kosovo - the party won 12 percent in recent elections and has a following among young people (Photo: festimb)

The opposition party attacked Tahiri because it believes the EU and the Kosovo government of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci are preparing to give ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo some form of autonomy in future.

The customs deal is to see Serbia accept Kosovo goods which are labelled with a newly-designed stamp that says 'Customs of Kosovo' but which does not display any state insignia, such as a flag or a coat of arms, according to Kosovo's leading daily, Koha Ditore.

EU diplomat Robert Cooper on Friday in Brussels welcomed the agreement.

"From quite soon, because there still a little bit of process that has to take place before this can be implemented, but quite soon, all Kosovo goods will be able to travel across the border ... That's good for regional trade, that makes the region look more European," Cooper said.

Tahiri called it a "breakthrough".

For his part, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Goran Bogdanovic, on Sunday told press that Kosovo customs officials will still not be allowed to man crossing points in northern Kosovo and that customs income based on the new stamps will not be allowed to go to Pristina.

Radenko Nedeljkovic, the head of Serb enclave's local authorities, put it more bluntly. "I am sure that there will be no Albanian customs officers at the Brnjak and Jarinje crossings. As far as the stamp is concerned, it can be used south of the Ibar River," he said, referring to the river that separates the enclave from Pristina-controlled Kosovo.

The Brussels talks come after Rosu police in July seized control of the border crossing points by force. The operation led to violent reprisals by local Serbs in which one ethnic Albanian policeman was shot in the head and killed. The crossing points are currently under the control of Nato soldiers.

The talks also come after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Serbia it will not get EU candidate status in autumn unless it stops support for the Kosovo enclave.

On the flip side of the Vetevendosje concerns, the Serb opposition sees the customs deal as a prelude to giving up control of north Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Cooper's reference to "a little bit of process" masks potentially important problems in terms of implementation - such as how to formulate the status of Kosovo in the documents of origin which need to be attached to any export shipments.

Kosovo and Serbia to resume EU-brokered talks

Kosovo and Serbia are going back to the EU-facilitated negotiation table on Friday, after talks broke down in July and violence escalated in the north of the former Serbian province, jeopardising Belgrade's EU membership ambitions.

EU 'not biased' in Kosovo border dispute

The EU has rejected Belgrade's accusation that it is biased in its attempt to mediate the week-long stand-off with Pristina over the deployment of special police forces in the majority-Serb northern Kosovo.

EU says Kosovo tensions 'unacceptable'

The EU on Wednesday said the escalation of violence at the Kosovo-Serbian border is "unacceptable" and called on both Pristina and Belgrade to defuse tensions "immediately" after one Kosovo policeman was killed and border posts set on fire.

Opinion

'Pay or okay?' — Facebook & Instagram vs the EU

Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.

Latest News

  1. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  2. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  3. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  4. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  5. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat
  6. Migrant return bill 'obstructed' as EU states mull new position
  7. Paris and Berlin key to including rape in gender-violence directive
  8. What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us