MAJOR WESTERN states have hailed Serbia’s decision to accept a compromise United Nations resolution on Kosovo as an important step in Belgrade’s bid to join the European Union.
After intense lobbying from EU and US diplomats, Serbia dropped a planned resolution condemning Kosovo’s 2008 independence declaration in favour of one which acknowledged a World Court ruling the declaration was legal and supported “dialogue” between Belgrade and Kosovo.
The text – tabled jointly by Serbia and the EU and unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly – welcomes the EU’s readiness to broker talks to “promote co-operation, achieve progress on the path to the European Union and improve the lives of the people”.
Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic insisted the resolution was “neutral” on the subject of Kosovo’s status, and that Belgrade “does not and shall not recognise the unilateral declaration of the independence of Kosovo”.
He added, however, that Serbia hoped the resolution “would help create an atmosphere conducive to the establishment of a comprehensive compact of peace between Serbs and Albanians, achieved through good-faith dialogue”.
Diplomats hailed the resolution as a major breakthrough, given that this is the first time since Kosovo’s independence declaration that Serbia has said it is willing to hold talks with the fledgling state without disputing its sovereignty.
Belgrade’s government hopes the concession will help accelerate its bid for membership of the EU, 22 of whose 27 members recognise Kosovo’s independence.
Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said yesterday he expected the EU to agree this year to have the European Commission formally review Serbia’s application.
German counterpart Guido Westerwelle said the UN resolution meant the “way is now open for direct talks between Serbia and Kosovo”, calling this “a very good basis for the transmission of the membership request to the commission”.
Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said the resolution marked “the start of a new phase in the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia”, an opinion echoed by US envoy Rosemary DiCarlo. Washington also accepts mostly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo as a sovereign state, as does Japan. China and Russia are the biggest powers to demure from recognising its independence.
Leading Serb nationalists condemned the UN resolution with one, Slobodan Samardzic, calling it “a major Serbian defeat to ultimatums from the western powers”.
