PRISTINA (Kosovo), April 23 (SeeNews) – Kosovo’s police have shut down a Serbian-run water and waste utility office in the southern municipality of Shterpce, the economy ministry said on Wednesday.
The company, Novo Javno Preduzece, had been providing services under Belgrade’s directives, which violates Kosovo’s laws and administrative control, the economy ministry stated in a press release.
The ministry plans to continue enforcement actions against entities operating outside the country’s legal framework, it added.
Kosovo’s Serbian minority party, Lista Serbska, condemned the action as violent while calling on the European Union and diplomatic missions of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy to stop the Kosovan government’s actions, local news provider Kosova Online reported.
In January, Kosovo’s interior minister Xhelal Svecla said authorities had closed all ‘parallel’ institutions — used by the ethnic Serb minority and financially supported by Serbia — in 10 municipalities where ethnic Serbs live.
Last year, the European Union criticized the Kosovan government for banning the use of dinar by making euro the only accepted currency and closing six branches of Serbian state-owned Postal Savings Bank. However, Kosovo did not reverse its decisions.
Serbia has consistently refused to recognise Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008. In May 2023, tensions in northern Kosovo escalated into an incident in which 30 NATO soldiers were injured while confronting ethnic Serb protesters after newly-elected ethnic Albanian mayors attempted to take office.