Servië geeft VS de schuld voor falen EU-bemiddeling over Kosovo (en)

BRUSSELS - Serb Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has blamed the US for blocking a potential land-swap deal with Kosovo which could have ended the frozen conflict over ethnic Serb enclaves.

Speaking in an interview in Belgrade with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday (8 April), Dacic said one potential solution for better relations would have been to give Kosovo control of a majority-Albanian region in the Presevo Valley in southern Serbia in return for Serb control of a majority-Serb region in north Kosovo.

"I actually think that Serbs and Albanians could easily agree to a land swap. But that would not be acceptable to Washington. The view here is that this could lead to a war in Macedonia," he noted.

He added that the Macedonian government created the risk of conflict between its ethnic Albanian minority and its Macedonian majority by recognising Kosovo in the first place.

"Why should Macedonia be threatened by such a [land-swap] solution? The Skopje government created this threat itself by breaking the law and recognising Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence. What if the Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia now declare independence? I hope not," he added.

Dacic spoke to FAZ on the same day that Serbia rejected an EU-brokered plan on better relations with Kosovo.

His government said in a statement on its website that it could not agree for north Kosovo to be subject to Pristina's authority, because this would "not guarantee the full safety, survival and the protection of human rights of the Serbs" in the area.

It is proposing instead for the north Kosovo Serbs to be run by an autonomous Association of Municipalities which controls its own police and courts - a solution which has also been rejected by the US as well as by Kosovo itself.

The Serbian government statement added that it wants to continue the EU-mediated dialogue despite the fact it formally ended last week after a 13-hour-long meeting in Brussels between Dacic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci which involved heated tempers and raised voices.

If there is no deal by 16 April, the due date for a European Commission report on Serbian-EU relations, the commission is unlikely to recommend that EU countries open accession talks with Serbia this year.

For her part, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday that she "regrets" Serbia's decision.

But she indicated she is happy for the talks to continue beyond their formal mandate. "I believe that all the elements for an agreement on northern Kosovo are on the table … I hope that Kosovo and Serbia will not miss the opportunity to put the past behind them and move forward into the future," she said.

Dacic, in the FAZ interview, also complained that Germany is being too tough by telling it to give up on north Kosovo if it wants the EU accession talks date.

"Germany is imposing unnecessary conditions in addition to those that have already been placed. It is time to finally move on and form strategic partnerships … Unfortunately, Germany and one or two of its neighbours in the EU are taking a very hard line against Serbia," he said.

He also criticised Serb politicians for pretending that Serbia still has some kind of control over Kosovo for the sake of their poll numbers.

"I am tired of telling fairy tales about Kosovo. I have said that we need a realistic solution," he said.

He noted that it would be hard to change Serbia's constitution, which claims Kosovo as a part of Serb territory, because it would require a referendum.

But he added: "Based on a political agreement with Pristina, a constitutional law be enacted which gives [new] powers to the government in Pristina in accordance with our constitution."