Ruecker briefs UN Security Council

Ruecker briefs UN Security Council

In a statement given before leaving Kosovo for New York, Joakim Ruecker said that in addition to a report on the implementation of standards over the last three months, the UN Security Council will discuss the progress of the territory's status and the effects that the delays on finding a solution for Kosovo have on the situation in the field.

According to Ruecker, any postponement of a decision on Kosovo's final status can potentially nullify the progress made in Kosovo in all sectors of society. He said that the UN Security Council has warned that Kosovo’s development depends on defining its status.

“Every postponement will be a card for extremists on both sides to use,” Ruecker said, adding that the citizens of Kosovo desire change and are "tired of the dual government by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo [UNMIK] and Priština institutions."

Serbian government, parliament launch Kosovo consultations

Serbian government representatives and parliamentary caucuses will today begin with consultations to set the date for the extraordinary session of the parliament dedicated to Kosovo.

As for a new resolution on the province that the session is expected to adopt, Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardžić said consultations regarding its content would begin Tuesday so that the resolution could be approved by the end of July.

“The resolution will endorse previous negotiating procedure, define the state’s position towards recent developments in the status settlement process and provide guidelines for state policy regarding the issue,” he explained.

According to Samardžić consultations would last no more than several days, and the document would be ready to enter the parliamentary procedure next week.

Ceku: Kosovo will work with West on independence

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders will not declare independence unilaterally this year without the backing of the U.S. and the European Union, Kosovo’s prime minister Agim Ceku told The Financial Times at a regional security conference in Dubrovnik over the weekend.

“But the EU must consider how to take over supervision of the new southeast European state in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution endorsing independence,” Ceku warned.

"We need a roadmap that leads us quickly and clearly forward."

Ceku said Kosovo would accept EU-led supervision and continue working with the west to overcome the objections to its independence from Belgrade.

“Montenegro will not rush to recognize Kosovo’s independence”

Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Roćen has said Monday that his country would not rush into recognizing Kosovo’s independence, should the process arrive at that outcome.

Roćen said this when Predrag Popović, member of a pro-Serb opposition party in the Montenegrin Parliament, asked him to expound Montenegro’s position on the province’s status settlement.

Roćen explained that the only acceptable solution for Kosovo was the one that was sustainable, with capacity to contribute to peace and stability in the region.