Government of Kosovo: Reduction of police presence in the north by 25 percent and elections immediately after the summer

The Government of Kosovo announced that, after a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and EU Special Envoy for Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, they are ready to contribute to the de-escalation of the situation in the north, which includes the current reduction of police presence by 25 percent in and around municipal buildings in four municipalities in the north.

As announced tonight by the Government of Kosovo, the goal of yesterday's meeting between Bislimi and Lajcak in Bratislava was to create preconditions for strengthening the focus on the full and unconditional implementation of the Basic Agreement of February 27 and the Ohrid Annex of March 18.

In this context, as they state, they agreed on the immediate reduction of police presence.

"The government of Kosovo publicly shows its readiness to contribute to the de-escalation of the situation and by not taking actions that could lead to an escalation of the situation in the north. This implies an immediate reduction of the presence of the police by 25 percent, in and around municipal buildings," the government statement said.

Also, it is stated that the Kosovo Police, together with EULEX and KFOR, will assess the security situation as necessary and will especially consider the possibility of further reducing the police presence in and around municipal buildings.

In addition, the Government of Kosovo supports the holding of early elections in four municipalities in the north of the country after the summer season.

"Kosovo expresses its commitment to provide the necessary legal basis to enable the organization of those elections. The EU will invite the two main negotiators to Brussels in order to finalize the sequence plan of the Agreement on Normalization, after which the implementation of all the articles of the agreement will begin. The aforementioned actions will be completed in two weeks," the announcement states.