Stano: Measures against Pristina can be scaled up if situation does not change

BRUSSELS - Commenting on Pristina's most recent actions against Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, EU spokesman Peter Stano said on Thursday measures that were in force against Pristina could be scaled up if all EU actors agreed that such a move was necessary, and noted that, instead of steps towards deescalation, Pristina was undertaking more and more unilateral actions leading to escalation.

"All the international partners of Kosovo are telling the administration in Pristina not to engage in this series of counterproductive, negative, unilateral uncoordinated steps," Stano said at a Brussels press briefing.

"And we hope that, finally, they will hear the message and will stop us from having to consider what kind of measures we will be considering to take in response if the situation does not change," he noted.

Stano was responding to a Tanjug query about what the EU planned to do about Pristina's increasingly frequent actions against Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and whether the EU measures against Pristina would remain in force following the arrest of five Serbs, the closure of nine Post of Serbia branch offices and an announcement that a bridge on the Ibar River would be opened to traffic.

"Yes, the measures are still in force because the member states have not decided to act or proceed based on the report from the High Representative (which recommends that the measures be lifted), submitted to them a few weeks ago, which is no wonder because, if you remember, the measures were imposed in June last year on the administration in Pristina for the fact that there was so much going on leading to escalation," he said.

"Instead of steps leading to deescalation, more and more unilateral actions and steps leading to escalation have been undertaken by these people. So, the measures are still there, and we said at that time that the measures are progressive - they can be scaled up, they can be scaled down, depending on the development of the situation," Stano added.

"We have measures in place and these measures can be also scaled up if all the EU actors agree that they need to be scaled up," he said.

"We issued our statement and positions on the issues of the raid in the Post of Serbia offices and on the efforts to unilaterally open the bridge over Ibar. In the past few days, we made our position very clear to our counterparts in Kosovo at many levels, in many ways and through many partners - it is not only the European Union," he said.