EU says it has begun to ease sanctions on Kosovo
May 22 (Reuters) - The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Thursday said the bloc has begun to lift sanctions on Kosovo, but that the process would be conditional on a sustained de-escalation of violence and hostilities in the north.
The European Union placed economic curbs on the country in 2023 for its role in tensions in the Serb-dominated north, where leftist Albanian nationalist Prime Minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control.
The bloc cut at least 150 million euros ($170 million)in funding, Reuters found.
"As a sign of our commitment, I can announce that the EU has begun to gradually lift measures introduced in June 2023," Kallas told reporters in Pristina.
"The decision opens the door for greater opportunities for crossovers, development and also closer ties with Europe. But it's conditional on sustained de-escalation in the North."
Kallas also urged Kosovo's political parties to end disputes that have blocked the formation of a new government after February elections, saying functioning institutions were needed to secure EU membership.
Kurti has repeatedly failed to secure the election of a new speaker, prompting fears of an economic backlash after months of political stalemate in one of Europe's poorest countries.
Lawmakers have been meeting every 48 hours since mid-April to elect a new speaker, a step required before Kurti, who failed to win a majority in a February election, can try to form a coalition government.
Kallas, who earlier on Thursday also visited Serbia, said that the 27-member bloc was opened to enlargement and wanted Kosovo to take advantage of the bloc's 6 billion euro Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.
"For that to happen, Kosovo needs functioning institutions that can effectively implement reforms, and that's why I encourage all parties to break the political stalemates and swiftly form a government," she said.
Both Kosovo and Serbia aim to join the European Union, but in order to make progress they need to normalise ties with each other and establish diplomatic relations. In 2013 the parties agreed to an EU sponsored dialogue, but little progress has been made.
($1 = 0.8866 euros)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How successful asylum claims for gay refugees have QUADRUPLED since pre-Covid
The number of asylum seekers successfully claiming to be gay to bag a one-way ticket to Britain has quadrupled since pre-Covid. Before the small boats crisis hit all-time highs, fewer than 500 arrivals were granted refugee status because of their sexual orientation each year. But figures exposing our 'push-over' system reveal this rose to 2,133 in 2023. From Bangladesh, where homosexual acts can be punished with life imprisonment, grants have risen 10-fold since 2015, MailOnline can reveal. Asylum claims are also being accepted from residents of nations where being gay is legal, such as Albania. The full findings of our investigation, part of our long-running series into 'soft-touch' Britain, can be viewed below. Home Office chiefs demand all asylum seekers trying to stay in Britain offer concrete proof to show they are at risk of persecution in their home country. Campaigners say they also must provide 'credible evidence' they are LGBT+, such as love letters and photos with partners. Yet critics claim that many – under the advise of legal firms funded by taxpayers – try to game the system by pretending to be gay. Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said: 'The Home Office has lost control of the asylum system and allowed it to be hijacked by lefty lawyers who are fully committed to undermining Britain's borders. 'These figures show many illegal migrants are claiming to be gay simply because it bolsters their chances of being given refugee status. 'Far too many grants of asylum are given to undeserving individuals who have lied their way through the process. 'The system is swamped, costing taxpayers an absolute fortune, and is not currently fit for purpose. The only way to restore order is to freeze asylum claims, end the corruption, and bring back a semblance of border control.' Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, said: 'The soaring figures are another clear sign that Britain is now a push-over when it comes to gaming the asylum system. 'If you want to migrate and hail from a country where you know the no British government will ever return you, all you need do is concoct an unverifiable back story, and you're home and dry.' Our analysis comes after a Pakistani asylum seeker last week begged Keir Starmer to let him stay in the UK because he is gay. Ali Raza Nasir insists he came to the UK to study but realised he would be 'safe' here when he visited Soho in London and met other gay people. Mr Nasir fears he will be deported to his home nation, where an arranged marriage with a woman awaits. Meanwhile, an Albanian asylum seeker who petitioned for the right to stay in the UK because he was 'gay' had his case denied earlier this month. An immigration judge found Esmir Demaj was now married to a woman. In one of the most brazen cases, as told by a Home Office source to the Mail, a man was granted asylum after he 'produced a photograph of himself with his arm around another man' as proof he was gay. It subsequently turned out that the person he had his arm around was his brother. Another notorious case from January made a mockery of the protections offered to gay people facing hardship. A convicted gay Zimbabwean paedophile was allowed to stay in Britain under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because, it was argued, he would face 'substantial hostility' if he was sent home. On that occasion, there was no dispute that the man was attracted to males, even if they were children. The article is frequently used by asylum seekers to launch appeals on the basis that their personal circumstances would expose them to harm in their home countries. Home Office statistics, which began in 2015, do not show whether sexual orientation was the sole basis for the asylum claim. In 2023, the most recent year full data exists for, there were 578 asylum claims made on the basis of sexual orientation from Pakistan. Pakistan was followed by Bangladesh (175), Nigeria (103) and India (39). MailOnline's investigation into the issue found several legal firms advertising advice on how to jump through the Home Office's official hoops. They issue guidance on how asylum seekers can ace their personal testimony interview, which is described as 'the most compelling piece of evidence'. Tips included making sure their testimony was 'highly detailed and consistent', and it would be best if they built 'as strong a case as possible' to be successful in gaining refugee status. The coaching even includes how applicants should explain how their identity within the LGBT community was formed and differs from cultural norms in their home country. Also included are examples of the type of documents that the Home Office accepts as supporting evidence, which is described as helping 'strengthen asylum claims'. The topic of asylum seekers weaponising compassionate British law by pretending to be gay has been raised by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has taken the extraordinary step of issuing a warning to the Home Office. His human rights group, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, used to receive only a handful of small personal donations online each week. All of a sudden, however, this has soared to up to 30 a day, accompanied by a similar surge in the numbers signing up for a weekly newsletter. The donations all come from men from Pakistan, which is the nation with the largest number of claimants in the world. It appears, he told the Mail, some may have been collating documentary evidence of their contact with the group in a bid to back up their asylum claims. However, he said there was 'no proof of wrong-doing' and that 'asylum fraud is rare'. Mr Tatchell told MailOnline: 'Asylum applicants have to provide credible evidence they are LGBT+, such as love letters, photos with partners, evidence of active involvement with LGBT+ organisations and campaigns. 'They also need to provide detailed evidence of the homophobic persecution they suffered: newspaper reports about what happened to them, police reports of their arrest, court documents citing their charges and sentence, etc. 'It would be very difficult to fake or forge these requirements. Online guidance cannot produce medical reports that confirm a LGBT+ person has been tortured or a police report documenting their arrest.' Mr Tatchell believes part of the rise in LGBT+ asylum applicants is due to increased homophobic repression in many countries in 2022-23, such as the Taliban's control of Afghanistan and Putin's issuing of new harsh laws in Russia. In December, the Mail on Sunday revealed how a Jamaican man who raped a sleeping woman at a party had been allowed to stay after his lawyers argued he was bisexual and would be put at risk if deported. In that case, the Home Office said that, since his arrival here 23 years ago, there was zero evidence of bisexuality, only of relationships with women. Even so, the tribunal judge bizarrely accepted he was likely to have been bisexual and blocked his deportation – a decision later upheld when the Home Office appealed to the upper tribunal judges. And two years ago Saheed Azeez, from Nigeria, won asylum after claiming to be gay – despite having three children by three women. Mr Mehmet added: 'Why have those who have made their way to the UK illegally from the other side of the Channel not claimed asylum in France or elsewhere in the EU? 'And why do migrants who have been here for years only claim asylum at the point of having to leave? 'As Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, has implied, perhaps some asylum seekers and their legal representatives are only too ready to grab any loophole they find.' In September 2023, the then Tory home secretary Suella Braverman said that some asylum seekers 'purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment'. She added: 'That's not fair and it's not right.' It led to her being castigated by some gay groups for making what they described as 'deeply disturbing' comments which, they said, 'question the legitimacy of LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum in the UK'. Many Left-wing pressure groups and other woke advocates refuse to countenance the possibility that any claim based on homosexuality could be fictional and depict any attempt to address such abuse as being reactionary or even homophobic. A Home Office spokesperson said 'Every asylum claim is assessed on its individual merits, and decision-makers receive thorough training to ensure genuine cases are treated fairly. 'A strong system of safeguards and quality checks supports this process, helping to ensure all claims are properly reviewed and decisions are reliable. 'We take any abuse of the immigration system extremely seriously. Where there is evidence of wrongdoing, we will take firm action to challenge it and protect the integrity of our borders.'
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Revealed: Where in the world it pays to be pretty (literally)
It is said beauty is in the eye of the beholder – but a study has found that some people value it more than others. People in Somalia, Albania and the Maldives link beauty with success, affluence and trustworthiness more strongly than the population of other nations, data show. Meanwhile, Vietnamese and Romanian people have negative views on beauty and associate it with bad traits such as incompetence, distrust and failure. Scientists have long known that being attractive brings 'pretty privilege', which confers social and economic advantages on good-looking people. Those seen as physically attractive have better employment prospects, higher earning potential, and a better ability to attract sexual partners, previous studies have found. But while this phenomenon was well known in English-speaking nations, it was unknown how widely it is found globally. Ugliness and failure strongly linked Scientists at the University of Mannheim in Germany used AI to analyse 68 languages to determine how much value beauty was given in each tongue, and whether it was positive or negative. The computers looked through reams of freely available writing online to see which words were often used with others, such as ball and circle being more commonly associated than circle and cat, for example. The scientists started by seeing if they detected pretty privilege, also known as a 'beauty premium', in English, and found a clear indication that beauty was linked to success. However, the study also found an even stronger link between ugliness and failure. This, the scientists conclude, means that for English people they dislike ugliness more than they like beauty. After extending the analysis to dozens of languages, the scientists identified 'substantial heterogeneity in the existence and size of the linguistic beauty premium across cultures'. Pretty privilege was found to be very widespread, but not universal, with it not existing among Thai, Spanish and German cultures. And while it was present in English, it ranked relatively low. The advantage English people confer on good-looking people is more than the Chinese, Afrikaans and Russians do, but far less than some other cultures. For example, pretty Finnish and Japanese people receive four times as much favouritism as English beauties get. 'There's substantial research highlighting the evolutionary advantages of physical attractiveness,' Wladislaw Mill, the study author, told The Telegraph. 'It seems plausible that cultural norms have evolved to reflect and reinforce these advantages, which may explain why we observe pretty privilege across many societies.' Evolution might be key factor Exactly why some cultures seem to value attractiveness more than others remains unknown, but Dr Mill believes beauty will be associated with some evolutionary advantages in those cultures that make it of particular value. 'We can derive three main insights: (1) most languages show a linguistic beauty premium, (2) English is relatively mediocre in the extent of its beauty premium, and (3) some languages have no or even a negative linguistic beauty premium,' the study authors write in their paper.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Sweden will step up insurance checks on foreign ships as worries about Russia rise
Sweden said Saturday it will step up insurance checks on foreign ships in a move aimed at tightening controls on Russia 's so-called "shadow fleet ' of aging ships. The government in Stockholm said that, starting July 1, the coast guard and the Swedish Maritime Administration will be tasked with collecting insurance information not just from ships that call at Swedish ports, but also those that pass through the country's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. 'This underlines Sweden's clear presence in the Baltic Sea, which in itself has a deterrent effect,' Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement. 'It also provides Sweden and our allies with important information about vessels that can be used as a basis for sanctions listings of more vessels in the shadow fleet.' Russia uses its shadow fleet to transport oil and gas, or to carry stolen Ukrainian grain. The European Union has now targeted almost 350 of the ships in total in sanctions packages, most recently on May 20. Kristersson said that 'we are seeing more and more problematic events in the Baltic Sea and this requires us not only to hope for the best, but also to plan for the worst.' The average age of the vessels is around 18 years, meaning they're near the end of their lifespan and are more vulnerable to accidents, especially if they're not well-maintained.
