Brussels, 30/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called on Serbia and Kosovo to normalise their relations. He was speaking during an interview reported on Friday 30 July in the Serb daily, Vecernje Novosti. “Normalising relations between Serbia and Kosovo is a political necessity”, the minister underlined. “It is not a condition for entry to the EU in the legal sense (…) but it is unimaginable that the two countries should join the European Union without having first resolved their differences and established normal relations between them as between member states”, Kouchner said.
According to the French minister, the opinion expressed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 22 July “finally puts an end to the legal debate that Serbia had initiated”. The Court states in an opinion that is non-binding for the states that Kosovo's proclamation of independence on 17 February 2008 was not in breach of international law. “It is now clear to everyone that the independence of Kosovo is irreversible, however one may feel about the matter”, Kouchner went on to say.
At the beginning of the week, Serbia sent a draft resolution to the United Nations ahead of the September General Assembly, proposing to open discussion between Belgrade and Pristina on “all issues still open” between them. The initiative was received very unenthusiastically by Pristina and by Europeans who consider Belgrade is thus seeking to resume talks on the status of Kosovo.
During their lunch on Monday 26 July, European foreign ministers debated the situation in Kosovo and the road that Kosovo still has to cover before it can be integrated into the EU. They underlined that this opinion “should be the beginning of a political dialogue and cooperation process” between Pristina and Belgrade, given that they are “convinced the two countries concerned have a future within the EU. The EU is ready to invest to allow dialogue and cooperation”, the Belgian foreign minister, Steven Vanackere, explained to the press on Tuesday 27 July. This dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo “would be to promote cooperation, achieve progress on the path to Europe and improve the lives of the people”, the Council states in a press release. (L.C./transl.jl)