Accelerate negotiations of EU Association Agreement with Kosovo

“The Stabilisation and Association Agreement of the EU with Kosovo should be completed as quickly as possible”, said EPP Group Rapporteur, Bernd Posselt MEP. “It is necessary to advance the accession of the Republic of Kosovo, which has so far established diplomatic relations with 104 out of 193 UN Member States, to the Council of Europe."

The European Parliament today welcomed by a large majority the start of negotiations on the Agreement, which began in October 2013, and called for the five remaining EU Member States that have not yet done so to diplomatically recognise Kosovo.

Posselt said: "After the basic understanding between Serbia and Kosovo, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU is the second important step on which the country can build a stable political and economic future."

The European Parliament condemned in today's Resolution the violence and intimidation in the majority Serb-inhabited north Mitrovica by Serb extremists in the recent local elections and called for decisive action to build new trust between Kosovar Serbs and Albanians.

Posselt welcomed the exemplary ethnic and minority rights in the Kosovo constitution, from which the neighbouring southern Serbian Presevo Valley should take an example to protect its minority of Albanians. "The brutal attacks of Serbian police against an Albanian-language school in the Presevo region have to be utterly condemned.” Bernd Posselt's call for increased support by Belgrade for the Presevo valley has been incorporated into a Report on Serbia, which was also adopted today by the European Parliament.

In view of the situation in the Serb-populated municipalities in northern Kosovo, the European Parliament said: “Further efforts are needed to break the organised criminal network, including its links to local political elites, and to restore the rule of law there." In addition, the EU rule of law mission, EULEX, must work more efficiently and must be better controlled by the European Parliament, said MEPs today following an initiative by Bernd Posselt.