Posing a fresh challenge to the organization, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has called on the European Union to conclude a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the country if the union is not bent on undertaking oversight of Kosovo’s achievement of home-rule. He said the 27-nation bloc has to choose „whether it wants a whole… Serbia as a partner, or it wants to create a ‘quasi state’ on Serb territory”. Kostunica’s request was in alignment with a parliamentary decision, moved by himself, which mandated that Serbia had to reject EU’s overtures if the union acknowledged Kosovo’s independence. According to Kostunica, upon withholding the partnership, EU is supposed to depute a mission to Kosovo charged with helping the breakaway province attain autonomy; a move dismissed by the Serbian leader as an „illegal decision”. He gave the bloc until January 28, the date for a meeting among EU foreign ministers, to opt for either of the options.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday uncertainty and a loss of momentum in the future status process of Kosovo could lead to a risk of instability, both in Kosovo and the wider region. Ban said in his latest report on the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIK) in the province, „the parties are urged to reaffirm and act upon their declared commitments to refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo and the region.” He said expectations in the province, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and other minorities by nine to one, are still high that a solution will be reached quickly. „As such the status quo is not likely to be sustainable,” Ban noted, „Should the impasse continue, events on the ground could take on a momentum of their own, putting at serious risk the achievements and legacy of the United Nations in Kosovo.”
Last month, the troika comprising the European Union, Russia and the United States told the Security Council in a report that despite four months of intense and high-level negotiations, Belgrade and Pristina have been unable to reach agreement on Kosovo’s final status. The province’s Albanian leadership supports independence but Serbia is opposed. (Gazdasági Rádió, presstv.ir, people.com.cn)
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