EP adopts Resolution calling for measures against Serbian government over Banjska

The European Parliament (EP) adopted Thursday a Resolution on the recent developments in the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, calling on the European Union (EU) Council and European Commission to impose measures against the Serbian Government if it is established that it was directly involved in the September 24 attack in Banjska, northern Kosovo.

The information that the Resolution was adopted was posted on the social network X by EP Rapporteur for Serbia Vladimir Bilcik.

“We need a full investigation of the Banjska attack and delivery of justice. Belgrade and Pristina must also return to a peaceful and constructive EU-facilitated dialogue,” said Bilcik following the vote on the Resolution.

Klemen Groselj MEP explained in an interview with N1’s European correspondent ahead of the Thursday session in Strasbourg that potential measures would not be aimed against the Serbian citizens.

“The message is clear – we are not sanctioning the citizens, the sanctions are not against Serbia. First there needs to be an investigation, Serbia needs to fully participate, and the perpetrators, the initiators, the organizers…they will be sanctioned, but only once all the facts are established,” Groselj explained.

The Resolution urges the Serbian government to fully cooperate with the investigation of the attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska, and to extradite to Milan Radoicic, who claimed responsibility for organizing the attack, to the Kosovo authorities.

The EU is asked to follow the example of the US and UK, and impose sanctions on Radoicic.

The two sides are urged to return to dialogue and to work on de-escalation, adding that the Serbian side should stop its inflammatory rhetoric and aggressive military behavior on the border with Kosovo, it said.

The Resolution calls on Kosovo to establish the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, in line with the Brussels Agreements of 2013 and 2015, the Kosovo Constitution and the 2015 judgment of the Constitutional Court without further delay.

At the same time, it calls for the negative measures the EU has taken against Kosovo to be lifted, but, as Klemen Groselj MEP explained for N1, only once all conditions are met.

EP adopts Resolution calling for measures against Serbian government over Banjska