Serbia, Kosovo leaders meet for first time at EU
by Raf Casert

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
19 October 2012

BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union on Friday mediated the first official talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, the bitter Balkan rivals, and the Serbian prime minister said he is ready for a 'historic compromise.'

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she first met separately with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, then chaired a joint meeting. We 'will meet again soon ... to improve the lives of people and help solve problems and, in so doing, bring Serbia and Kosovo closer to the European Union,' Ashton said.

Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia has said it will never recognize the independence of its former province, which it considers the cradle of its statehood and Christian Orthodox religion.

Serbia spent much of the 1990s ostracized and isolated from the EU after Serbian autocrat Slobodan Milosevic started wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia to stop the war in Kosovo, forcing Serbia to relinquish control there.

Today, the EU is setting the normalization of relations with Kosovo as the main condition for continuing Serbia's membership negotiations with the bloc. But Kosovo's Serb-populated north has remained a flashpoint of the troubles in the Balkans because hardline Serbs there do not acknowledge the authority of Kosovo's central government.

'We believe the time has come to reach a historic compromise,' Dacic said after Friday's meeting. 'We are ready for talks, even about the final status of Kosovo.'

But he also said the talks should not 'result in a one-sided recognition of Kosovo's independence.'

'We are ready to talk about the position of the Serbian people (in Kosovo), protection of church heritage, war crimes, organ trafficking, the missing, Serb property and the return of refugees to Kosovo,' Dacic said.

A statement from Thaci's office said the meeting will clear the path for the two countries to eventually join the EU, and 'serve peace and stability in the region.'

Kosovo authorities welcomed the meeting.

'It is very good that (the) very first high-level meeting between the prime minister of the republic of Kosovo and the republic of Serbia was held on equal basis,' Arber Vllahiu, the spokesman for Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga told The Associated Press.

Ashton said she firmly believes the dialogue is in the interest of both sides.

Dacic said the next meeting between the two prime ministers is scheduled in November.

___

Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia, and Nebi Qena from Pristina, Kosovo.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.