British ideas for Belgrade Kosovo handling

Serbia will not join the EU before it solves its relationship toward Kosovo, Novi Sad daily Dnevnik writes, quoting its diplomatic sources. Serbia also cannot hope to become an EU member unless guarantees are offered that Belgrade will not block Kosovo's membership, according to the same sources. British ideas for Belgrade Kosovo handling "No one in the EU will put a condition before Serbia to recognize Kosovo in order to receive a candidate status, or to start membership negotiations. Belgrade knows very well that it has a few calm years from the European side to bring EU membership negotiations to an end." The newspaper's sources explained that Belgrade is simply expected not to politicize matters that are important for Kosovo's economic development, such as Pristina's participation in regional cooperation, such as CEFTA, or the Energy Community. A source close to the British Foreign Office further said that the Serbian authorities occupied themselves merely with territorial issues during the Kosovo status talks, and were totally uninterested in the fate of the Kosovo Serbs; now, the time has come for the new government to change the priorities and put Kosovo's Serbs at the top of the list, the sources explained. "We think the best would be what was applied for Ireland and Northern Ireland, since as we have seen, both Great Britain and Ireland have joined the EU, without fully solving the issue of Northern Ireland. Also, no side suffered damage over that." Considering that Ireland joined the EU with its 1937 constitution that said the northern part of the island was a part of its national territory, but also an article that explicitly said that the laws of Ireland were valid only in the southern part of the island, Dublin explicitly recognized the factual state of affairs, that it had no control over Northern Ireland, Dnevnik writes today. The British idea for Kosovo, the newspaper continued, would be for Serbia to leave Kosovo as a formal part of her national territory in the Constitution, at the same time recognizing that there is, in relation to Belgrade, an independent government there, meaning that each citizen born in Kosovo has a right to be a part of "the Serb people" and that Serbia and Kosovo can unite, but only in a peaceful process with the majority agreement of the people both in Serbia and Kosovo. "In that way, Serbia would be motivated to work on integrating Kosovo into the EU as soon as possible, while on the other hand, the Serbs in Kosovo would be doubly protected as citizens, not only of Kosovo, but also of Serbia," said the newspapers anonymous source.

British ideas for Belgrade Kosovo handling

"No one in the EU will put a condition before Serbia to recognize Kosovo in order to receive a candidate status, or to start membership negotiations. Belgrade knows very well that it has a few calm years from the European side to bring EU membership negotiations to an end."

The newspaper's sources explained that Belgrade is simply expected not to politicize matters that are important for Kosovo's economic development, such as Priština's participation in regional cooperation, such as CEFTA, or the Energy Community.

A source close to the British Foreign Office further said that the Serbian authorities occupied themselves merely with territorial issues during the Kosovo status talks, and were totally uninterested in the fate of the Kosovo Serbs; now, the time has come for the new government to change the priorities and put Kosovo's Serbs at the top of the list, the sources explained.

"We think the best would be what was applied for Ireland and Northern Ireland, since as we have seen, both Great Britain and Ireland have joined the EU, without fully solving the issue of Northern Ireland. Also, no side suffered damage over that."

Considering that Ireland joined the EU with its 1937 constitution that said the northern part of the island was a part of its national territory, but also an article that explicitly said that the laws of Ireland were valid only in the southern part of the island, Dublin explicitly recognized the factual state of affairs, that it had no control over Northern Ireland, Dnevnik writes today.

The British idea for Kosovo, the newspaper continued, would be for Serbia to leave Kosovo as a formal part of her national territory in the Constitution, at the same time recognizing that there is, in relation to Belgrade, an independent government there, meaning that each citizen born in Kosovo has a right to be a part of "the Serb people" and that Serbia and Kosovo can unite, but only in a peaceful process with the majority agreement of the people both in Serbia and Kosovo.

"In that way, Serbia would be motivated to work on integrating Kosovo into the EU as soon as possible, while on the other hand, the Serbs in Kosovo would be doubly protected as citizens, not only of Kosovo, but also of Serbia," said the newspapers anonymous source.