Kosovo’s interior minister announced the closure of parallel institutions used by the country’s ethnic Serb minority on Wednesday, a move which was condemned by the European Union.

Kosovo’s interior minister Xhelal Sveçla said, “[T]he era of municipalities and parallel and criminal institutions of Serbia in the Republic of Kosovo” has ended, with 28 parallel offices in the municipalities of Lipjan, Obiliq, Prishtina, Fushë Kosovë, Vushtrri, Novobërde, Kamenica, Viti, Rahovec, and Skënderaj closing.

The European Union’s External Agency asserted, “Kosovo’s recent actions against and closure of Serbia-supported structures … go against its obligations towards the European Union under the normalisation process.” The EU external agency further commented that the “status of Serbia-supported structures is foreseen to be resolved through the EU-facilitated Dialogue,” and that while the EU had planned to “gradually lift the measures vis-à-vis Kosovo in parallel with further steps by Kosovo to de-escalate the tensions in the north,” the closure of parallel institutions was not “conducive to this goal.”

Parallel institutions are two institutions that serve the same purpose but are available to different people. In Kosovo, there are parallel schools, courts, and state offices, among other institutions, independently serving Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs. However, parallel institutions have not been unilaterally successful in reducing tension between Serbs and Albanians within Kosovo. In 2003, the UN reported that “numerous problems arise” due to parallel institutions:

In criminal law the most serious problem is the risk of double jeopardy. In civil law, the validity of decisions taken by parallel courts, for example in cases of divorce, the payment of alimony or an inheritance dispute, still need to be determined. Kosovan children do not receive the same education because there exist two school systems with different curricula. Individuals driving with licences issued by the Serbian authorities have been arrested and convicted for possession of forged documents.

Parallel institutions have remained a point of tension between Serbia and Kosovo since the report. The EU sought to ease tensions between Kosovo and Serbia through the Brussels Agreement in 2013, which aimed to integrate Serbian institutions into Kosovo’s legal framework while granting autonomy to Serb-majority municipalities. Implementation has been uneven, and many Serbian parallel institutions still operate, especially in northern Kosovo. Today, Kosovo Albanians largely operate under the Republic of Kosovo’s institutions, while many Serbs, particularly in the north, rely on Serbian-backed structures.

In 2023, Kosovo and Serbia agreed to EU-guided normalization procedures, but the agreement has failed to ease tension between the countries as of yet.