TIRANA, July 24 – EU nations sought Monday to paper over cracks in their fragile unity in the face of growing tensions between the United States and Russia over the future of Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo.
“It’s one of the most challenging problems the EU has ever encountered, and without a doubt one of the most difficult,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after the meeting.
The EU’s 27 members have been generally united in their support for a U.N. resolution that would empower the U.N. to deploy its mission to the province and replace the current U.N. administration there.
Still, members including Spain, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus have expressed reservations at the prospect of Kosovo gaining independence without a U.N. Security Council resolution, which is increasingly unlikely in the face of Russian opposition. There are concerns that the EU could split over the issue if it remains unresolved.
The European Union ministers discussed Kosova following the failure of the UN Security Council to reach agreement on a resolution, which they regretted, according to a press release.
It was noted that the negotiating process would now continue for a period of some 120 days for which ministers appealed to Belgrade and Pristina to engage actively and seriously.
It was also noted that the EU should stand by existing agreed positions and that it was determined to remain united on Kosovo independence in defense of European interests, notably stability and prosperity and the European future of the Balkans.
Further discussions on the modalities of the negotiations will continue, but ministers agreed that the EU should be part of the international team facilitating negotiations.
Representatives of the Contact Group on Kosovo met in Vienna Wednesday to hammer out a way forward for stalled talks on the future status of the breakaway Serbian province.
Envoys from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia gathered on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for new negotiations between the Serbs and Kosovo’s independence-seeking ethnic Albanian majority, with talks starting possibly in August or September.
Diplomats said the idea would be for U.S., Russian and EU mediators initially to shuttle between Belgrade and Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.
Although Kosovo formally remains a part of Serbia, it has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO air strikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Kosovo’s future shifted to the Contact Group after it became clear that Russia, an ally of Serbia which holds veto power in the U.N. Security Council, would not agree to U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan to give Kosovo internationally supervised statehood.
U.S. and European officials have agreed to allow 120 days for further negotiations that would include talks with Kosovo and Serbia in a last attempt to reach an agreement. On Tuesday, Russia insisted that any new talks not be based on Ahtisaari’s plan.
