Pavkovic: International actors are not satisfied with the situation in Kosovo, but will not exert pressure

Director of strategy at the Center for European Policies in Belgrade, Milos Pavkovic, told Kosovo Online that due to the crisis in the Middle East, the focus of Western diplomats will not be on Kosovo, but that they certainly do not view favorably the institutional crisis that Kosovo is facing.

Pavkovic emphasized that international actors are not satisfied with the political situation in Kosovo, but that they will not directly interfere or exert pressure on political actors.

“The EU Envoy for the dialogue, Peter Sorensen, recently stayed in Pristina. Since the government was formed, he has visited Pristina twice and expressed the expectations of the European Union that a high-level meeting should be organized, which will not happen if the government falls. So they certainly will not look favorably on that. In principle, international actors are not very satisfied with what is happening, but at the same time I do not expect them to directly interfere and exert pressure on political actors, especially because the eyes of the public, primarily diplomats, are focused on other parts of the world, such as Israel and Iran and the conflict in the Middle East. It therefore seems to me that there is neither the capacity nor the desire to deal more seriously with the institutional crisis in Kosovo at the moment,” Pavkovic said.

Regarding funds from the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, Pavkovic stressed that the tenth convocation of the Assembly of Kosovo ratified agreements in a short period of time that allow certain financial resources to be paid to Kosovo, and that he does not believe this will be halted if Kosovo falls into a new political crisis.

“I think the condition was to ratify the agreement and adopt the reform agenda, which this assembly managed to do in this short period. I think those conditions have been fulfilled. There will certainly be delays in implementing steps for the next tranches, but for the previous financing I do not believe there will be problems,” our interlocutor concluded.