The recognition of Kosovo by Serbia should be the first point of dialogue, says the assistant to the European Parliament, Federica Woelk. She criticizes the European Union for how it has handled the dialogue so far, for which she adds that mediators Josep Borrell and Miroslav Lajcak should be replaced.

In an interview for KosovaPress, Woelk says that the European Union should impose sanctions on Serbia and remove the measures against Kosovo, but emphasizes that some member states are having a negative impact in this regard.

The Accredited Parliamentary Assistant to MEP Ulrike Muller, Federica Woelk, appeals to the Kosovar side to lobby more for its right to highlight the fact that Kosovo stands better than other countries of the Western Balkans, especially in the field of the rule of law.

And in order to stop the influence of Serbia in the Balkans and especially in Kosovo, Woelk emphasizes that the European Union must take measures.

According to her, the suspension of EU funds to Serbia until the latter does not recognize Kosovo is something that must be implemented.

“I think yes, the sanctions should be imposed on Serbia and be removed from Kosova. This is the first thing to do in any case and for the new plan, the details are not fully known yet, so we don’t really know what it entails. In my opinion, the important thing is to avoid that Serbia will be able to influence Kosova because I think for Serbia it will be easy to influence Kosova and this should be avoided at all cost.”, she says.

She also talks about Serbia’s aggression in Banjska when Serbian terrorists attacked the Kosovo Police, leaving police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku dead.

“It’s terrible and even more terrible is the fact that there has been no concrete response from the EU besides the European Parliament resolution, which was a very good step. But I have the impression that the gravity of this terrorist attack has not been fully understood and also the fact that it wasn’t one thing one time, but it’s something that can happen again and we should really avoid that.” she emphasizes.

While the European Parliament has adopted a resolution for Kosovo where it has strongly condemned the attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska, it is the European Union that has only been left with a warning for measures.

Regarding this, Woelk says that unfortunately, the EU’s foreign policy is still a matter for the member states, when it is known that there are those that are against the sanctions against Serbia.

“My comment is that the EU it’s quite complicated in general. We also have the issue that foreign policy, unluckily, is still a matter of the Member States and that we have member states who are against imposing sanctions on Serbia. Besides this, I also think that we have a problem with the two mediators at the moment of the dialogue, and certainly does not easy the situation. So I think first of all, we should change mediators in the dialogue. We should impose measures, if not sanctions, then measures, like for example, an idea could be to suspend the EU funds towards Serbia until Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosova… Everything is linked to this concept of normalization of relations, which is quite weird because in order to normalize relations we need to have two partners who recognize each other and if one partner does not recognize the other, for me, there is no normalization.”, she says.

According to her, the EU should wake up regarding Serbia.