'kosovo' - tagged features

Serbia's president has officially dissolved parliament and has called early elections. President Boris Tadic says the snap elections will be held on May 11. The move comes after parliament collapsed last weekend following a deep split over Kosovo's independence and Serbia’s ties with the European Union. President Tadic wants his country to pursue EU membership even though 18 of the 27 member states have recognised Kosovo’s autonomy. But his coalition partners led by nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica hold the opposite view. They insist that unless member states reverse course and declare Kosovo as part of Serbia, the country shouldn’t seek to join the EU. Kosovo’s declaration of independence was always expected to have a dramatic effect on Serbia. I asked Marta Razborsek, Radio Slovenia’s correspondent in Belgrade, if the collapse of the Serbian government was expected? 

Kosovo's independence was celebrated by tens of thousands in the new country's capital Pristina on Sunday the 17th of February. Posters were plastered across the city thanking the US and the European Union for their support. But as you might expect, that's not the story across the border to the north in Serbia. Many Serbs are angry with the US and Europe for blessing Kosovo's independence. Slovenia couldn’t be much further away from Serbia these days, in the political sense. It was the first province to break away from the Yugoslav union back in 1991. And it's come a long way since then. It currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and is something of a darling in the west. while Serbia remains more or less a pariah state. Within the EU opinions are divided over Kosovo’s independence, and whether Serbia’s right or wrong to complain about it so bitterly. Critics of the west’s media coverage of the move say Serbia’s been getting an unfairly bad press. And arguably, the country’s had a difficult rapport with the rest of Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990’s. Our Brussels correspondent Vanessa Mock believes Europe’s relationship with Belgrade just got even more complicated. 

Another decision EU ministers took on Monday in Luxembourg was to sign a new agreement with Montenegro, the world's newest state which seceded from its union with Serbia in May 2006. The Stabilisation and Association Agreement is a first step on the road to EU membership. 

A big topic which is up for discussion at the United Nations shortly is Kosovo. The Security Council is due to vote on the province's future on December 10th. Russia is expected to veto the UN's autonomy plan for the breakaway Serbian province. And Kosovo says it will declare independence after the December 10 deadline. But Serbia says it won't accept losing its southern province. In the latest round of diplomatic efforts, the Dutch Minister for European Affairs, Frans Timmermans, traveled to the region this week to ease tensions and to try to forge a compromise before a new meeting between Serbs and Kosovars in Brussels on Sunday.