Kosovo’s authorities close parallel institutions run by the country’s ethnic Serb minority

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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s authorities on Wednesday said they had closed all so-called parallel institutions used by the country’s ethnic Serb minority and financially supported by neighboring Serbia, in a move condemned by the European Union.

The offices include the local Serb administration and postal and tax agencies in 10 municipalities where ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo.

“From today on, the chapter of Serbia’s illegal criminal parallel structures in the Republic of Kosovo is closed,” Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said.

The EU said the status of Serbia-supported structures was meant to be resolved through EU-facilitated dialogue on normalization of ties between Serbia and Kosovo. Their relations remain tense since the former Serbian province declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade doesn’t recognize. The declaration followed NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 that ended a war between Serbia and ethnic Albanian separatists.

“Kosovo’s recent actions against and closure of Serbia-supported structures, conducted in the midst of the election campaign for the 9 February parliamentary elections, go against its obligations towards the European Union under the normalization process,” the EU said in a statement.

Wednesday’s closure was seen as likely to help Prime Minister Albin Kurti in the election. Kurti has often taken actions described as “patriotic” while the EU and United States have warned they don’t help tensions with ethnic Serbs and Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said ethnic Serbs in Kosovo will not lose their jobs despite the closing of the remaining Serb-controlled institutions in the region.

“They will have income and their earnings will support their families since Serbia takes care of them,” he said, adding that when Donald Trump takes office in the U.S. next week, “tectonic changes will happen” in the region — referring to the loss of Washington support for Kosovo that some Serbians anticipate.

Mirolasv Lajcak, EU’s envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, said the Serb delegation boycotted a meeting in Brussels “due to the developments in Kosovo.” The EU-facilitated dialogue, started in 2011, has seen little progress.

Ivan Milojevic, a Serbian worker at the post office in Gracanica, a municipality close to the capital, Pristina, that’s mostly populated by ethnic Serbs, said the new closure was part of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s pressure on Serbs ahead of the Feb. 9 parliamentary election.

Kosovo has accused Serbia of organizing a plot to grab its northern territory in September 2023, and of planting explosives against water systems in November last year. Serbia denied the accusations.

Kosovo’s government last year banned banks and other financial institutions in the four northern municipalities where most Serbs live from using other currencies in local transactions. In September, it closed Serb-run institutions in five other municipalities.

Kosovo’s ethnic Serbs make up about 2.3% of its 1.6 million population, according to last year’s census. Serbs largely boycotted the census and have not accepted those figures, calling them too low.

Both the EU and the United States have been urging both sides to implement agreements reached two years ago that include a commitment by Kosovo to establish an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities. Serbia was also expected to deliver on the de facto recognition of Kosovo.

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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report