By Filipe Rufino - 13th February 2007
European foreign ministers have called on Serbia and Russia to back a UN plan on the future status of Kosovo.
Under the plan, drawn up by former Finnish president and UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, Serbia would have to accept virtual independence for the Serb territory of Kosovo.
To get Belgrade back on track, the EU is linking the issue with Serbia’s EU enlargement aspirations.
“Serbia is welcome in Europe”, said German foreign minister and acting EU chair Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “We hope the new government in Serbia … will live up to its obligations”, he added.
The EU started talks with Serbia on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement – the first step towards EU Enlargement - in 2005.
Negotiations on the agreement were suspended the following year in a row over Belgrade’s failure to hand in war crimes and genocide suspects – including Ratko Mladic, the commander of Serbian Bosnian forces- to the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
But Belgrade’s new government “deserves a new chance” to live up to its EU ambitions, said enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn yesterday.
“Full cooperation with the ICTY remains a fundamental condition” for progress in talks, he underscored.
The EU is aiming to get Russia’s support at the UN as negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo unfold this month, Rehn said.
“We expect Russia will join us in this approach”, he said, adding that this will be “a real test for multilateralism”. Moscow has so far sided with Serbia.
Meanwhile, as talks between EU ministers dragged on, Kosovo’s interior minister Fatmir Rexhepi resigned from his post.
The death of two ethnic Albanian protesters in Kosovo on Monday prompted Rexhepi to resign.
Around 3000 ethnic Albanians are reported to have taken part in protests against the Ahtisaari plan last weekend.
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