Stano: Lajcak working on dialogue, Pristina should avoid unilateral steps

BRUSSELS - European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said on Monday the EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak was working on getting the two sides back to the negotiating table but that no date of any upcoming activity could be announced at this time.

He urged the Pristina authorities to avoid unilateral steps as they were very counterproductive.

"Over the last few week, we have seen at least two examples of actions which, of course, raised concerns of the European Union – one was the regulation of the Kosovo central bank and the other one was the police operation against some Serbian-run entities in the north of Kosovo," Stano said at a Brussels press briefing.

"These steps are concerning because they are not contributing to de-escalation of the situation – they are usually not coordinated, they are unilateral or taken without the necessary level of prior consultation in order to preempt or prevent the negative impact they might have on the people on the ground," he said, adding that the EU had reacted to both matters.

"So, of course it is concerning to see that the sequencing of unilateral steps might lead to something that we do not want to see, and that is deterioration of the situation on the ground because, one thing is for sure, it is not contributing to calming the situation and to making people feel that their lives are going to get better – quite to the contrary," Stano said.

"That is why it is important to go back to the EU-facilitated dialogue and engage very seriously there. The work on it continues every day, the EU SR Lajcak is working with partners both in the region and in the EU, and of course, the wider international community, to allow it to both sides to start behaving constructively and come back to the negotiating table and discuss issues which are really important without making unilateral steps," he said.

"I am not able to announce any upcoming date of any upcoming activity... ...But we are, of course, hoping that we will at one point be able to announce a high-level meeting, which is usually the meeting between the PM and the president from Kosovo and Serbia where we try to help them solve issues as they come," he said.

"At this stage, there is nothing to announce – we really are urging, especially in this case, Kosovo authorities, to engage in the process of consultations and avoid further unilateral steps because they have a very, very counterproductive effect," Stano also said.