EULEX Kosovo patrol gets attacked as tensions rise

"No EULEX Formed Police Unit (FPU) officer was injured, and no material damage was caused in the attack," EULEX Kosovo said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Kosovo police said on Saturday it has temporarily closed two border points in the north after roads leading to them have been blocked by locals.

Serbia's prime minister, Ana Brnabic, said in a Twitter post on Sunday that the barricades are "a call for peace and also call for action by international community to start doing its job".

Ethnic Serbs have been protesting in the northern part of Kosovo with demands for the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities, as agreed by the governments of Kosovo and Serbia in 2013. Tensions have been running high in the northern part of Kosovo after a new directive for vehicle owners to replace Serbian licence plates with Kosovar ones came into force on November 1.

In November, EULEX Kosovo temporarily deployed 23 additional gendarmes to Kosovo to strengthen the capacity of the local EULEX FPU. EULEX’s regular FPU consists of 105 Polish police officers stationed in Mitrovica. The EULEX mission in Kosovo is assisting the authorities in establishing sustainable and independent rule of law institutions.

Kosovo, considered to be a potential candidate for EU membership by the European Commission, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence. In 2016, Kosovo signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU which entered into force on April 1 of that year.