Brussels, 25/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Serbian President and Prime Minister Boris Tadic and Vojislav Kostunica and their Kosovan counterparts Fatmir Sejdiu and Agim Ceku met in Vienna on 24 July to begin political negotiations on the future status of the province. Not surprisingly, both sides stuck firmly to their respective positions, said United Nations chief mediator Martti Ahtissari who is overseeing the talks. Despite the differences in viewpoint, the EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana, quoted by AFP, described the meeting as “an important step” and called on both sides to engage constructively and show “flexibility and mutual understanding”. Before the Ambassadors of the Kosovo Contact Group (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) for these first direct talks in Vienna on the future status of Kosovo, the Serbs and Albanians presented positions “as far apart as they could be”, Mr Ahtissari told press following a closed doors meeting. His summary of the two positions was, “Belgrade will accept everything except independence (of the province) and the Kosovo Albanians will accept nothing but independence”. There has, then, been no breakthrough, but Mr Ahtissari, who was not expecting any, said that the meeting had been satisfactory, particularly since it was the first time that Serbian and Albanian leaders had met since the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999. “It was the first meeting of its kind. It would have been wrong of me to expect any kind of breakthrough,” said Mr Ahtissari, who went on to say that the “frank and sincere” talks had gone “better than expected”. The technical negotiations will continue at the start of August, he announced.
From the start, each side maintained its well known position. “Independence is the alpha and the omega, the start and end of our position,” said the Kosovan President. While restating that “Serbia would not accept the creation of another state on its territory”, the Serbian Prime Minister once again offered the province “substantial autonomy”.
Erhard Busek, the Stability Pact Special Coordinator, said that we were heading inevitably towards independence for Kosovo. “It will certainly be a long process, but ultimately it lead to independence,” he told the German daily Tagesspiegel on 24 July.