EU measures against Kosovo went into effect as the Government there is being punished for its refusal to allow the Serbian municipalities to organize into an association.

Kosovo will no longer be invited to high level meetings and will be left out of a 2.1 billion EUR investment fund for the region. Kosovo is asked to remove its police forces from the northern municipal buildings and to organize new local elections to replace four ethnic Albanian mayors who were elected with just a handful of votes – after the Serb boycott.