Kosovo a priority for EU meeting

Efforts to defuse tensions over Kosovo as the province edges towards declaring independence from Serbia will be a top priority when European Union foreign ministers meet today.

Possible new UN sanctions against Iran and peace efforts in the Middle East will also feature at the talks to prepare for a summit of EU leaders later in the week.

The 27 EU ministers will meet behind closed doors in Brussels with the EU’s envoy to the Kosovo talks, Wolfgang Ischinger, to discuss how to prevent violence in the breakaway province if Kosovo Albanians declare independence.

The EU is keen to prevent any flare-ups as tensions build in the Balkans over Kosovo’s status after months of internationally mediated talks on a compromise solution for its future collapsed two weeks ago.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will not declare independence from Serbia without approval from the European Union and the United States.

EU nations and the United States had backed a plan for a gradual, supervised move toward statehood for Kosovo, a province of two million people where more than 90% of the population is ethnic Albanian.

Serbia – which considers Kosovo its historic heartland – and traditional ally Russia rejected the proposal.

Russia’s foreign minister has accused the West of encouraging Kosovo to declare independence, warning in an interview published yesterday that such a move would rekindle hostilities in the province and erode global stability.

Sergey Lavrov, in comments to the Cyprus News Agency posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, hailed Belgrade for offering ethnic Albanians in Kosovo broad autonomy. But he chastised Kosovo’s Albanians.

“We haven’t seen any readiness from Pristina to at least take into account Belgrade’s legitimate interests,” Mr Lavrov said. “Regrettably, by repeating a thesis about Kosovo’s predetermined independence, the Albanians have been following signals from some Western nations that they were ready to support a unilateral sovereignisation.”

Mediators are to debrief UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today in New York on the failed talks; the UN Security Council must then determine the way ahead.

Meanwhile, Washington and its European allies agreed at Nato talks on Friday to maintain a strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, which has been run by the United Nations, backed by Nato troops, since a 1999 bombing campaign by allied warplanes to end a Serb crackdown on the separatists.

The EU is divided over whether to recognise a declaration of independence if Serbia disagrees.

Spain and other countries with autonomous regions of their own fear that moving to recognise Kosovo could set an international precedent that could bolster separatist movements elsewhere.