Belgrade to amend Kosovo resolution

09/09/2010

Reaching a last-minute deal, Serbia avoids a costly political battle with some of the EU's most influential members.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade -- 09/09/10

Belgrade has agreed to change the resolution on Kosovo [Getty Images]

As the UN General Assembly prepares to debate Serbia's proposed resolution on Kosovo, authorities in Belgrade have reached an agreement with the EU on amending the document.

The revised text was finalised on Wednesday (September 8th) during intensive talks in Brussels between Serbian President Boris Tadic and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The initial text of the resolution was submitted on July 28th, but some EU member states announced immediately that they found it unacceptable and that Serbia would damage its relations with the Union if it pressed ahead.

In the amended version, a sentence declaring that unilateral secession cannot be an acceptable solution for territorial issues has been removed. Moreover, Belgrade has backed off demands that talks with Pristina cover the entire range of disputed issues, including status.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has ruled out any further discussion of status. The United States and those EU members that have recognised Kosovo have likewise said the issue is off the table.

Announcing Wednesday's agreement, the government stressed that the revised resolution does not in any way recognise Kosovo as independent, but simply lays the groundwork for moving forward with talks. "With this text, we are closing the proceedings before the International Court of Justice and calling for a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," it said.

Ashton, meanwhile, said the co-ordinated draft is a reflection of "our common commitment to Serbia's European perspective".

The move has sparked varying reactions at home. The opposition Liberal Democratic Party hailed the compromise with the EU and said authorities had taken "the first step towards changing Belgrade's wrong policy on Kosovo".

By contrast, former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia said Belgrade had "capitulated" in the face of pressure from the EU.

An official of the Serb National Council for Northern Kosovo, Marko Jaksic, went even further, saying that Belgrade had effectively "acknowledged the independence of Kosovo".

"Essential provisions have been removed from the text and the situation will now be very difficult for the Kosovo Serbs. Instead of fighting for Kosovo, Belgrade has chosen the hazy prospect of European integration," Jaksic told SETimes.

Analyst Predrag Simic, however, says Belgrade successfully avoided a clash with the most influential EU countries and subsequent marginalisation.

"I think Belgrade has demonstrated European maturity and helped the foreign policy of the EU, which is not united on Kosovo's status. That is why I think Belgrade can expect certain rewards from Brussels," Simic told SETimes.