EU verwacht vertraging uitspraak status Kosovo tot de lente (en)
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i has indicated that a final decision on the status of Kosovo will not be taken before "early spring" next year.
The Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999 and talks on its future status have been ongoing for years.
"Kosovo's final solution will be postponed to early spring [2008]", the commissioner told Finnish daily Utispaiva Demari on Thursday (13 December), adding that he is certain the talks on the future status of the Serbian breakaway province would continue and that the EU is prepared to work for an agreed solution.
The statement comes only a day after it was confirmed the Serbian presidential elections would take place on 20 January and 3 February next year. It is the clearest indication so far that the bloc will delay a decision on the future status of Kosovo until after these elections.
It had already been speculated that the EU would not take a decision before the elections fearing that it could have an impact on the results.
The enlargement commissioner did not give reason for the delay.
But EU diplomats, quoted by Serbian news agency TANJUG, said that during a meeting on Monday (10 December), EU foreign ministers informally agreed to avoid any action that could potentially lead to a nationalist backlash in Serbia.
The current Serbian president - the pro-European Boris Tadic - is hoping to get re-elected in 2008. One of his opponents is Tomislav Nikolic, the deputy leader of the hard-line nationalist Serbian Radical Party, whose leader Vojislav Seselj is currently on trial at the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal and is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Delaying the decision until "early spring" means that a meeting of EU leaders on 28-29 March next year in Slovenia may turn into a key event regarding Kosovo's future status.