Van Rompuy: Serbia needs to do more on Kosovo to make EU progress

Nov 25, 2011, 12:07 GMT

Brussels - The European Union on Friday told Serbia that it needs to do more to mend ties with its former province of Kosovo if it wants to progress toward membership of the bloc.

The warning was delivered by EU President Herman Van Rompuy to Serbian President Boris Tadic, who visited Brussels days after Serbia resumed EU-brokered negotiations on practical cooperation with Kosovo after a two-month hiatus.

'While acknowledging the latest results in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, I encouraged President Tadic to take further steps to assure EU member states that Serbia is seriously engaged' in the talks, Van Rompuy said in a statement after the meeting.

After fulfilling long-standing EU demands to hand over to a United Nations court two suspect war criminals, Serbia was hoping that an EU summit on December 9 would grant it the status of official candidate to the bloc.

But an EU diplomat told dpa that was unlikely to happen unless Serbia concluded new cooperation agreements in a next round of talks with Kosovo scheduled on Wednesday in Brussels, and fully implemented agreements struck in previous rounds.

'For the moment, they have nothing in the bag,' the diplomat said, stressing that Belgrade-Pristina talks are to take place on the eve of an EU foreign ministers' meeting expected to prepare summit decisions on Serbia.

The EU does not expect Serbia to recognize the independence of Kosovo, as five of its own member states share Belgrade's opinion that it is illegal. But it wants the country to normalize relations as much as possible with Pristina.

In July, the two sides agreed to end a trade embargo. But since then violence has broken out in Northern Kosovo, with the Serb-majority population there resisting the control by Kosovo Albanian officials of two border posts with Serbia.

Serbia has twice broken off the EU-sponsored talks with Pristina over the issue. Diplomats in Brussels say that due to the controversy, Serbia lost the opportunity to secure a bigger reward from next month's EU summit - a date for starting accession talks.

'It was there for the taking in July, but then they blew it,' one source told dpa.

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