EU in last push to get Serbia to water down its UN draft on Kosovo

Sep 8, 2010, 12:51 GMT

Brussels - The European Union was engaged in a last push Wednesday to get Serbia to water down its controversial resolution on Kosovo, due to be presented at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the following day, officials indicated.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Serbian President Boris Tadic late on Tuesday in Brussels in an attempt to get Belgrade to drop references in its draft text to reopening the Kosovo independence issue. But the meeting proved inconclusive.

'Work is still ongoing to find a common understanding,' Ashton's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told journalists.

Tadic has since returned to Belgrade, but a statement from Ashton after the meeting indicated she and the Serbian leader would 'be in touch on Wednesday.'

The EU would rather like Serbia to accept Kosovo's secession as a fait accompli and start a 'dialogue' with it on practical issues, such as cooperation on customs and crime-fighting.

Serbian newspaper Blic reported Wednesday that in return Ashton had promised Tadic to speed up Serbia's EU integration and insist that Serbia-Kosovo talks should also involve giving 'a special status' to the Serbian-dominated north of Kosovo and enclaves dotted around the rest of the country.

But Kocijancic refused to confirm the information.

Kosovo, with a majority ethnic Albanian population, declared independence in 2008, 11 years after NATO ousted Serbian forces from there to end a lopsided war.

Kosovo was backed by the US and the leading EU countries, which quickly recognized it. Supported by Russia in the UN, Serbia however continues to hamper the new country's full promotion.

In July Belgrade's petition to the International Court of Justice backfired, since the UN tribunal ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence violated no law.

Serbia reacted to the setback announcing it would still challenge Kosovo's secession at the UN General Assembly, but German and British foreign ministers publicly warned it was risking its ties with EU by focusing its entire diplomatic efforts on a lost battle.

The EU's diplomatic pressure on Serbia, however, is tempered by the fact that five of its 27 member states - Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Greece and Slovakia - refuse to recognize Kosovo, leaving Ashton with a difficult balancing act.