LEAD: Serbia's EU candidate status in peril over Kosovo

Nov 9, 2011, 10:30 GMT

Belgrade - The European Union will not recognize Serbia as a membership candidate in December unless it resolves the crisis in northern Kosovo and resumes talks with its former province, the daily Blic reported Wednesday quoting diplomats.

Serbs, who dominate the north of the otherwise mostly Albanian Kosovo, erected roadblocks months ago to prevent the government in Pristina from taking control of the border with Serbia proper.

NATO peacekeepers in northern Kosovo (KFOR) used teargas to disperse a crowd of Serbs early Wednesday from one of their roadblocks, Serbian national television RTS reported.

Immediately after KFOR troops chased them away from their barricade, near the border with Serbia, the Serbs dumped a few truckloads of gravel nearby on the same road, RTS said.

Tensions have disrupted the dialogue the EU facilitated between Belgrade and Pristina since March in a bid to resolve at least some technical issues stemming from Kosovo's secession from Serbia in 2008.

European nations have warned Serbia that it will not allow it to move closer to membership before they see substantial progress in the talks and until it severs its financial support for Kosovo Serbs' resistance to Pristina's authority.

These conditions are likely impossible to fulfil before the December 9 EU summit.

Blic quoted diplomatic sources in Brussels as saying that EU leaders, mainly Germany, may soften their position and formally recognize Serbia as a membership candidate even if it only exerts its command over Kosovo Serbs to end the blockade in northern Kosovo.

There is, however, no more talk of a date for the start of EU accession talks for Serbia, which President Boris Tadic and his allies had until recently hoped to get in December.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and was recognized by the United States, 22 of the 27 EU nations and nearly all the countries in the region.

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