No EU if you don't mend Kosovo ties, Brussels to tell Serbia

Oct 11, 2011, 15:50 GMT

Belgrade/Brussels - Serbia will be told this week that it should be able to get closer to the European Union 'on the understanding' that it mends ties with Kosovo, officials in Brussels said Tuesday, on the eve of a key European Commission report.

On Wednesday, the EU executive is expected to recommend granting candidate status to Serbia, but only if the Balkan country restarts an EU-brokered dialogue with its former province, sources from the bloc said.

It is also set say that the following step for Serbia - starting EU accession negotiations - should come only once the country delivers 'four or five concrete results' on normalizing relations with Pristina.

Serbia's government - which over the past year has fulfilled a long-standing EU demand to arrest genocide-suspect Ratko Mladic and another war crimes fugitive and is facing a tough re-election battle next year - is expecting rewards from Brussels.

But its refusal to let go of Kosovo has irked several key members of the bloc - with Germany warning Belgrade over the summer that the issue was critical for its EU progress.

Belgrade's recent decision to break off talks with Pristina after a previously agreed deal on customs sparked violent protests in Kosovo's Serb-populated north have not helped Serbia's EU cause, several EU diplomats explained.

EU mediator Robert Cooper failed to get parties to restart talks after ending a tour of Belgrade and Pristina on Tuesday.

The EU commission was expected to apply some pressure on Pristina too, calling for it to develop a strategy 'to win the hearts and minds' of Serbs living in northern Kosovo, sources said.

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