EU moving away from US on Kosovo, says Belgrade
15.10.2007 - 17:33 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Serbian minister on Kosovo affairs
claims the EU has slightly changed its stance on the Kosovo issue away from
insisting on the province's independence to a better understanding of
Belgrade's position.
Speaking at an event by a Brussels think-tank just a day after the second round
of talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians on Monday (15 October), Mr
Samardzic said that although it was not "marvellous" there has been
some positive outcome to the current diplomatic initiative, led by a trio of
EU, US and Russian envoys.
"We have seen progress from nothing to something," he said.
He pointed out that while the previous UN-led talks focused on issues other
than the future status of the province, the troika negotiations have gone to
the core problem.
The current diplomatic round was launched after Russia, a permanent member of
the UN's security council, earlier this year blocked UN envoy Marti Ahtisaari's
plan to set the 90-percent ethnic Albanian province of 2 million inhabitants on
the road to independence.
The trio of envoys are due to report back to the UN about the results of the
negotiations on 10 December, with Serb and Kosovo Albanian officials set to
meet again on 22 October and up to four more meetings scheduled throughout
November.
Less US-oriented?
Mr Samardzic maintained that until six months ago, "the EU followed
exclusively the US approach on Kosovo" while now it is trying more to
consider its own interests in the region and is "more in favour of
continuation of talks to reach a compromise than before."
He suggested that this EU policy is "still being just formulated" and
urged Europe to find a "specific European solution" more quickly.
But it is also Belgrade which is resisting time pressure and is against the
December deadline for finding a solution.
Wolfgang Ischinger, EU's envoy in the troika on Kosovo, said on late Sunday (14
October), that international negotiators found some "encouraging
elements," concerning the approach of Belgrade and Pristina but certainly
"not enough."
"We must get them to recognize the fact that they are still too far and
there is still quite a distance to be covered if really we want to get to an
agreement. This distance will also require some painful decisions by one or by
both sides".
Early death of EU foreign
policy?
For Serbia, a "European-kind of solution" for Kosovo would be "a
kind of autonomy," says Mr Samardzic, as he thinks it is "a classical
European solution on how to solve minority problems."
He explained that within such an autonomy there would be "a big room for
experiments possible" on the details of power-sharing.
Limited autonomy is unacceptable for Kosovo Albanians however who have
announced they are planning to declare independence unilaterally shortly after
the troika talks are due to end in December.
While the US has signalled it would recognize such a unilateral move, Belgrade
is hopeful that the EU would not follow suit due to disagreements over the
issue among its member states.
"A unilateral move by some states recognising Kosovo without a common EU
position would be disastrous for its foreign and security policy, it would be
the end of it," commented Mr Samardzic.
For their part, EU officials try to use eventual European membership as
political leverage for both sides to find a solution.
© 2007 EUobserver, All rights reservedhttp://euobserver.com/9/24970/?rk=1
Powered by ScribeFire.
