Koštunica refuses to give ground over Kosovo

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica has welcomed the conclusion this week of technical talks on a pre-accession deal with the EU, but is giving no ground on the future status of Kosovo.

On Monday (9 September), Serbia and the EU agreed on the wording of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), which Belgrade hopes can be signed in December.

But Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for enlargement, said that a report later this month from Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), on Belgrade’s co-operation with the tribunal, would be "crucial" for the EU’s decision whether to sign the SAA. Talks on the SAA had been suspended for a year over Serbia’s failure to give up the remaining war-crimes fugitives but resumed in June after the arrest and transfer of two indicted Serbs to the ICTY.

Agreement on the future status of Kosovo, a breakaway province of Serbia mostly populated by ethnic Albanians, remains elusive. The EU says that it is committed to the ongoing talks on Kosovo led by a troika of EU, US and Russian envoys. But it is becoming less likely that the talks, which have to wrap up by 10 December, will lead to a United Nations Security Council resolution since Russia will reject any deal that Serbia dislikes. Without a resolution, it will be very difficult for the EU to take over from the current UN administration of Kosovo, according to Spyros Economides, a Balkan specialist at the London School of Economics.

This is not just a legal but also a political challenge, Economides said. Officially, the EU has no plan on how to deal with a unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo government, which seems increasingly likely. This could lead to serious division among EU member states.

Cracks in the EU’s facade of unity appeared last week with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi suggesting that Serbia should be given a fast track to EU membership without waiting for a solution to Kosovo’s status.

Experts suggest that the EU is ill-prepared to deal with any security challenge. Koštunica said in Brussels that recognition of an independent Kosovo would "seriously endanger" peace and stability in the region. And in an apparent reference to the Serb Republic in Bosnia, he told EU officials that Kosovo was "not a unique case" and it may set a precedent for other breakaway provinces.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica has welcomed the conclusion this week of technical talks on a pre-accession deal with the EU, but is giving no ground on the future status of Kosovo.