Reuters AlertNet Lite - EU urges swift settlement of Kosovo future

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EU urges swift settlement of Kosovo future

11 Mar 2007 09:44:58 GMT
Source: Reuters

BRUSSELS, March 11 (Reuters) - Major powers should waste no time settling the future of Serbia's Kosovo province after the end this weekend of fruitless Serb-Albanian talks, the European Union's top enlargement official said.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called a proposal for U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari establishing the basis for Kosovo's independence a "realistic compromise" and backed his move to present it to the U.N. Security Council this month.

"It provides a framework for a future stable, democratic and multi-ethnic Kosovo," Rehn said in a statement late on Saturday, after Ahtisaari declared in Vienna the end of his efforts to get Serbs and ethnic Albanians to come to a negotiated solution.

"A sustainable solution of Kosovo's status is needed, without delay...The status settlement will have to be anchored in a clear European perspective, so as to enhance stability in Kosovo and in the wider region," Rehn added.

Though it avoids the word independence, Ahtisaari's blueprint sets out the framework for an independent state, under a foreign overseer and European Union police mission. It offers self-government and protection for the 100,000 remaining Serbs.

EU officials have made it clear the people of Kosovo can look forward to membership of the 27-nation EU along with the rest of the western Balkans as long as they carry out the necessary economic and political reforms.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed Serbia to drive Serb forces accused of atrocities in a two-year counter-insurgency war out of the province.

The West wants a solution imposed by June, seeing no prospect of forcing 2 million Albanians back into the arms of Serbia and fearing unrest if they are frustrated much longer.

U.N. Security Council veto-holder Russia remains the only potential stumbling block. Serbia's fellow Orthodox Christian ally has insisted that time be given for both sides to agree on a solution, but has avoided threatening to use its veto.

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Last updated:Sun Mar 11 09:45:02 2007