{"id":56222,"date":"2022-12-18T12:24:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T12:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/?p=56222"},"modified":"2022-12-18T14:04:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T14:04:54","slug":"sweden-is-concerned-about-the-north-westerlund-the-five-countries-that-do-not-recognize-kosovos-independence-complicate-the-path-to-eu-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/sweden-is-concerned-about-the-north-westerlund-the-five-countries-that-do-not-recognize-kosovos-independence-complicate-the-path-to-eu-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden is concerned about the north, Westerlund: The five countries that do not recognize Kosovo&#8217;s independence, complicate the path to EU membership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>The Swedish ambassador, Jonas Westerlund, has expressed his\ndisappointment regarding the situation in the north. In an interview for\nKosovaPress, Westerlund said that the situation created in that part of the\ncountry is unnecessary. He stated that there is a need for a much closer\ndialogue between the government and the Serbian community in the north. Also,\nhe comments on Kosovo&#8217;s application to the European Union, as ambassador of a\ncountry that will take over the Presidency of the EU in a few weeks.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Westerlund feels at home in the Balkans. He was part of the\nOSCE mission in 1999 in Kosovo, while he worked for the UN for two years in\n1996-1998 in Croatia as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite mentioning the big changes in Kosovo that have taken\nplace since 1999, he does not hide his disappointment that one thing has\nremained the same, and that is the situation in the north of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed in the sense that I remember walking across the bridge in Mitrovica in 1999, and I remember walking from the south side to the north side, and immediately there were some Kosovo Serbs who came to me to check who I was, and check my passport. I cannot imagine that 23 years later I would have the same feeling when you cross the bridge again. So I&#8217;m disappointed that the Balkans has not been able to progress further. &#8220;, he said for KosovaPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Westerlund: The five countries that do not recognize Kosovo, complicate the path to EU membership\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TYZZ1eOpSAc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The North is again at the epicenter of developments. The\nbarricades have been set up for the ninth day now and Ambassador Westerlund\ndoes not hide his concern with what is currently happening in that part of the\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a quite troublesome situation at the moment. We urge\nall parties to deescalate the situation, of course. This is mainly being done\nthrough the EU envoy, Lajcak, who just visited Kosovo together with the US\nenvoy, Escobar, but Sweden of course supports their efforts, and there is a\nvery dangerous situation, one small dispute can have serious consequences, so\nwe urge both parties, Prishtina and the local community to deescalate the\nsituation.\u201d he continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westerlund, in the interview for KosovaPress, declares that\nthe situation in the north is unnecessary, as the focus should be Russia&#8217;s\naggression against Ukraine and the energy crisis in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He emphasizes the need for a closer dialogue between the\nGovernment of Kosovo and the Serbian community in the north of the country,\ndespite saying that he gives the right to the executive in efforts for the rule\nof law throughout the territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think is very unnecessary, I think is disappointing\nthat we have come to this stage, and there is the need here for a very much\ncloser dialogue between the community and the government. Whom did the\ngovernment consult with when they decided to have this framework on license\nplates, who did Serbian List consult with when they decided to leave the\nconsultations and their cooperation with the Kosovo institutions? So there\nneeds to be a much stronger dialogue here. Of course, this northern Kosovo is\npart of Kosovo. The Kosovo Government has every right to send reinforcements\nand the rule of law should be obeyed in these areas, but still, when you make a\ndecision in a certain region is always good to have a dialogue with the local\ncommunities.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week Kosovo applied for membership in the European\nUnion. The next presidency in the EU starting from January 1 for the first six\nmonths of 2023 will be held by Sweden, and Ambassador Westerlund promises that\nthe application will be handled professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSweden fully supports Kosovo&#8217;s aspirations to become an EU\nmember. We welcome their application&#8230; As you know Sweden will take over the\nEU presidency by first of January, after the Czech Republic\u2026 Sweden will then\ndeal with this (the application) during its presidency in the coming six\nmonths, and we will do that in a professional manner, but of course in dialogue\nwith all the other EU members, in particular with the five member states who\nhave not recognized Kosovo. &#8220;, declared Westerlund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked if the five non-recognizing EU states will complicate\nthe path to membership, Westerlund affirms such a thing, but adds that the\ncurrent situation in the north will also bring difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think it\n(the situation with the five non-recognizing countries) certainly\ncomplicates matters. I also think that the current situation in the Northern\npart of Kosovo also complicates matters.\u201d adds Westerlund.\n\n\n\nPrime Minister Albin Kurti stated during the\ngovernment meeting that recognition by Spain, Greece, Romania, Cyprus and\nSlovakia would facilitate the acceleration of the process of membership in the\nEuropean Union.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Swedish ambassador, Jonas Westerlund, has expressed his disappointment regarding the situation in the north. In an interview for KosovaPress, Westerlund said that the situation created in that part of the country is unnecessary. He stated that there is a need for a much closer dialogue between the government and the Serbian community in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":56223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,306,296,3131],"tags":[312,3274,449,3275],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56242,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56222\/revisions\/56242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}