Eurocommissaris Rehn: Servië moet EU-integratie niet aan Kosovo linken (en)
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i has called on Serbia to refrain from linking its EU integration process to demands on the Kosovo issue.
Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said earlier this month that the EU should choose between signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement i (SAA) with Serbia - the first step to eventual EU membership - and sending a mission to Kosovo as agreed by EU leaders in December 2007.
But Commissioner Rehn said such linkages should not be made.
"It is disappointing that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement is misrepresented in the Serbian political debate," Mr Rehn told Reuters in an interview.
"It is sad that Serbia's European future is being offered up on the altar of domestic power games," he continued.
There is a chance for Serbia to sign its SAA as early as this month, provided it demonstrates full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the commissioner said.
Kosovo recognition
Meanwhile, Germany has suggested that the EU recognise an independent Kosovo simultaneously with sending its mission there.
"It would be much less risky if these two steps happened at the same time," Germany's deputy foreign minister, Gernot Erler, told Reuters.
EU leaders last December gave the political green light to sending a 1,800-strong mission of policemen, prosecutors and judges, to Serbia's breakaway province - while stressing this did not mean the bloc was ready to recognise Kosovo.
Mr Erler's idea is unlikely to be accepted unanimously among the member states, as some of those backing the deployment of the EU mission as soon as possible - such as Slovakia - do not favour recognising Kosovo's independence.
"There are also those who want to start the EU mission immediately, while taking more time to react to the declaration of independence. We believe this would create a problematic vacuum," Mr Erler said.
Legally still a part of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 and wants full independence from Belgrade.
Its new prime minister, Hashim Thaci, said on Wednesay (9 January) that independence would be proclaimed "within few weeks."
However, "Kosovo will do nothing without Washington and Brussels. There will not be a unilateral action," Mr Thaci told the Associated Press.