On Thursday, the European Union and NATO welcomed the removal of barriers erected by the Serb minority in northern Kosovo.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that diplomacy prevailed in reducing tensions in northern Kosovo.
“Violence can never be a solution,” Borrell said in a statement.
He expressed the European Union’s welcome to the “responsible behavior” of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
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In turn, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu announced that the alliance welcomed efforts to reduce tension.
Lungescu said that NATO expects the parties to implement their commitments.
On Wednesday evening, Vucic announced that the barriers erected by the Serb minority in northern Kosovo, which have strained relations between the two countries, will be removed as of Thursday morning.
Vucic said he spent a “difficult night of talks” with a group of Kosovo Serbs.
On December 10, groups from the Serb minority in northern Kosovo began erecting roadblocks with trucks to protest against the arrest by the Pristina authorities of Serbian policeman Diane Pantek on suspicion of committing “terrorist acts”, which escalated tensions between the two countries.
Kosovo, whose majority population is Albanian, seceded from Serbia in 1999 and declared its independence from it in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it part of its territory and supports a Serb minority in it.
