VP/HR — The humiliation of a high-ranking Serbian official in Kosovo and the degradation of Serbia-Kosovo relations

18.4.2018

Question for written answer P-002186-18
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 130
Dominique Bilde (ENF)

On Monday 26 March 2018, high-ranking Serbian Government official Marko Djurić attended a conference in Mitrovica, Kosovo.

The conference was interrupted by the Kosovan police. Violence, including tear gas, was used against attendees, and, according to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Mr Djurić was beaten and paraded through the streets of Priština ‘to complete the humiliation’. On 27 March 2018, Serbian members of the Kosovan Government resigned their positions.

This incident compounds the escalation of tensions between Serbia and Kosovo and the degradation of the already highly questionable treatment of Serbs in Kosovo, as underlined by the killing of politician Oliver Ivanović in Mitrovica on 16 January 2018.

1. Will the VP/HR officially condemn the treatment of Marko Djurić by the Kosovan authorities?

2. The adoption on 21 March 2018 of the border agreement between Montenegro and Kosovo removed the last obstacle to Kosovo’s integration into the EU visa liberalisation area. Does the VP/HR believe the integration of Kosovo into this area to be appropriate, given the treatment of the Serb minority and tensions with Serbia?