Sljuka: No consensus in the EU on whether to lift or increase sanctions against Kosovo

Aleksandar Sljuka, associate of the NGO "New Social Initiative," stated that there is no consensus within the European Union on whether the punitive measures against Kosovo should be lifted or whether Kosovo should be further sanctioned due to its unilateral actions. At the same time, the analyst warned that the existing set of sanctions against official Pristina has not been consistently applied, especially in the political aspect.

“It’s more a matter of internal EU consensus—how different countries view the overall issue of the dialogue and Kosovo’s relationship with international partners. Whether they support easing the measures or believe Kosovo should be punished to some extent for all the actions the government has taken in the past period, which include numerous unilateral steps that contributed to escalation on the ground,” Sljuka told Kosovo Online.

He added that there has been talk for some time—both in Kosovo and within the EU—about lifting the punitive measures, but differing opinions persist within the Union.

“Some countries oppose it, and there’s more consensus around a phased, gradual lifting. That would likely mean removing financial and technical measures first, followed by others,” he said.

Sljuka sees the selective enforcement of the imposed measures as a much bigger issue.

“Throughout the period since the measures were introduced, we’ve seen selective implementation. They were never fully applied. In the political aspect, the restriction on high-level meetings between EU officials, EU member states, and Kosovo was never fully respected. We witnessed numerous meetings then, and they are happening even now—so it’s questionable how credible or effective those measures really were,” he explained.

He reminded that Kosovo officials have repeatedly claimed they had met all the criteria for the lifting of sanctions.

However, he pointed out that the reality on the ground suggests the opposite.

“We’ve seen numerous closures of Serbian institutions in Kosovo. Since 2023, there have been countless actions and unilateral moves condemned by international partners. In fact, we’ve witnessed more escalation than de-escalation on the part of Kosovo officials,” Sljuka emphasized.

He stressed that Pristina has not fulfilled a single condition for lifting the punitive measures.

“The primary conditions were the initiation of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (CSM), which hasn’t happened. The withdrawal of special Kosovo Police units from and around municipal buildings—which occurred to some extent—but the escalation continued. Maybe not in front of municipal buildings, but there were numerous other cases where special units physically mistreated citizens and behaved unprofessionally. So even that can’t be viewed as a fully met criterion,” Sljuka said.

One of the conditions was also the organization of new elections in the four northern municipalities. Sljuka recalled that Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani claimed that this condition had been met through the adoption of an “administrative instruction,” but that only led to a referendum, which the Serbs boycotted.

“We never had new elections in the north. Albanian mayors are still in office—many of whom initially refused to work from alternative locations. Even those who did eventually returned to municipal buildings, where they weren’t just making technical decisions but were also involved in political decisions. So almost none of the conditions have been fulfilled. We’ve seen far more escalation than de-escalation, and in my opinion, not enough has been done to consider the conditions met for lifting the measures,” Sljuka concluded.