Brussels, 02/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - European Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle put pressure on Serbia on Thursday 1 September to normalise relations with Kosovo as it prepares for accession to the EU.
“I recalled the well-known Commission position that, while recognising Kosovo is not a formal condition for Serbia's European integration process, solutions need to be found to a number of outstanding issues which still prevent the normalisation of relations”, said Füle in a press release following his meeting in Brussels with the leader of Serbian nationalist party, the SNS, Tomislav Nikoliæ.
Füle did not go as far as German Chancellor Angela Merkel who intensely annoyed the Serbs during a visit to Belgrade last week when she told them that, if they wanted EU applicant country status this year, they would have to deliver results in the dialogue with Kosovo and that, above all, they would have to dismantle the parallel administrative institutions that operate in the north of Kosovo.
Serbia desperately wants to achieve the status as a candidate for accession to the EU. Füle explained that the opinion on 12 October will be a “thorough, objective and qualitative” assessment of the merits of Serbia on the basis of well-known criteria, applied consistently to all applicant countries.
His comments came as Serbia and Kosovo returned to dialogue in Brussels on Friday 2 September for the first time since the start of the trade embargo crisis in the north of Kosovo in July. The main issue for discussion was the customs stamps that lay behind the dispute, said the head of the Serbian delegation Borko Stefanovic and his Kosovar counterpart Edita Tahiri. At the last round of discussions, Serbia rejected a compromise on Kosovar customs stamps, resulting in a ban being imposed by Pristina on Serbian goods. Belgrade does not allow goods bearing the customs stamp of the Republic of Kosovo to enter Serbia. Kosovo declared itself independent in 2008, but Serbia continues to consider it as a southern province. To many Serbs, Kosovo is the cradle of their culture. (L.C./transl.rt)