{{Serbia and its former province of Kosovo struck an historic deal on Friday to settle their fraught relations, opening the door to European Union membership talks for Belgrade in a milestone for the region’s recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia.}}
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the prime ministers of both sides had initialled an agreement during talks in Brussels, capping six months of delicate negotiations after over a decade of deep animosity since Kosovo broke away in war.
« It’s very important that now what we are seeing is a step away from the past and for both of them a step closer to Europe, » Ashton told reporters.
Kosovo’s EU’s integration minister, Vlora Citaku, tweeted: « And the white smoke is out! Habemus pactum! Happy:))) »
Serbian officials said the deal remained subject to approval by « state bodies » back in Belgrade. « We will inform the EU by letter on Monday whether we accept the deal or not, » Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic told reporters. EU diplomats said there was very little chance of Serbia reversing course.
The pact tackles the ethnic partition of Kosovo between its Albanian majority and a small Belgrade-backed pocket of some 50,000 Serbs in the north, a schism that has dogged regional stability since Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008.
It will also likely open the door to greater international integration of the young state, the last to emerge from the ashes of federal Yugoslavia but which Belgrade considers the cradle of the Serb nation.
Serbia hopes it will be enough to win the green light on Monday from the EU’s 27 members for the start of talks on Serbian accession to the bloc.
That process could unlock Serbia’s potential as the largest market in the former Yugoslavia and lure much-needed foreign investment to its struggling economy.
{wirestory}
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