EU to send observer team to Kosovo’s Oct. 6 early election

TIRANA, Albania – The European Union’s foreign policy chief says the bloc is sending a 61-member team of observers to Kosovo’s Oct. 6 early general election to show that Pristina “remains a political priority.”

Policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday that this vote “comes at an important juncture for Kosovo, where it needs to move decisively to make progress on its European path, on reforms and on the normalization of relations with Serbia.”

Kosovo is holding an early parliamentary election after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned in July when he was asked to go to a Hague-based court to be questioned on crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after the country’s 1998-99 war.

EU-facilitated talks between Kosovo and Serbia stalled last year over Kosovo’s decision to impose a 100% tax on goods from Serbia.