Alicia Kearns at the CoE: Serbia helped the perpetrators of the Banjska attack

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe today adopted the report “The functioning of democratic institutions in Serbia,” which notes that the normalization of relations with Kosovo is decisive for Serbia’s progress on its path toward the European Union.

The document, drafted by rapporteurs Victoria Tiblom (Sweden) and Yunus Emre (Turkey), emphasizes that Serbia continues not to recognize Kosovo’s independence and that the establishment of fully normalized relations remains among the main conditions for its EU membership.

The report states that the normalization of Serbia’s relations with Kosovo, whose independence Belgrade does not recognize, remains a serious issue and at the same time a decisive one for the country’s accession to the European Union.

The report was adopted during the 2026 summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

During the debate on the report, British MP and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Alicia Kearns delivered a sharp speech on how institutions function in Serbia.

She said that a state’s behavior toward neighboring countries clearly shows how it is governed and how it acts within its own borders.

According to Kearns, the way a government behaves toward its neighbors also reflects how it exercises power over its own citizens. She said this had been seen in Vladimir Putin’s case, where aggression abroad has gone hand in hand with the suppression of critical voices at home, and added that, in her view, the same pattern can also be seen in Serbia. Kearns stated that Serbia had supported the people involved in the attack, had given shelter to the perpetrators behind the Banjska attack and, according to the evidence, had armed them, which, she said, could also be confirmed by the serial numbers of the weapons used.