Belgrade Scraps UN Resolution on Kosovo

Belgrade Scraps UN Resolution on Kosovo

| 08 September 2010 |
 

 

Tadic and Ashton at a meeting in Brussels

 

Serbia's controversial draft resolution on Kosovo has been dropped, a day before it was due to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly.

President Boris Tadic announced that an amended resolution agreed by Brussels and Belgrade, which does not condemn Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence or call for negotiations on status, would be submitted on Thursday.

The compromise settlement on Wednesday night came after two days of intense negotiations between Tadic and EU high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton.

The resolution follows the International Court of Justice's advice on 22 July that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law.

The original Serbian resolution stated that unilateral secession was not an acceptable means to solve territorial disputes and called for dialogue on "all open issues", a formulation which was widely condemned by international backers of Kosovo's independence, including the US and Britain.

In a statement, Tadic said: "We have supported talks to come up with a solution for Kosovo and Metohija since 2005 and we are carrying on today."

Tadic added that agreement had come about through negotiations with the five EU members which do not recognise Kosovo – Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain – as well as other states which support Kosovo's independence.

He said that the joint EU-Serbia resolution would 'enable a dialogue for resolving the Kosovo issue'.

The resolution, he added, does not include recognition of Kosovo's independence "in any way".

Opposition parties in Serbia were quick to label the decision "a defeat for the Serbian people".

Slobodan Samardzic, vice president of the opposition Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, claimed that by accepting the changes, Tadic and the government had committed an "act of capitulation under the ultimatums of the West".

"With this resolution Serbia at the UN General Assembly will  defeat itself and the Serbian people," Samardzic told local news agency Beta.

 

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30429/