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Beta (Serbia)
August 27, 2007
Jeremiæ leaves official reception
BLED - Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremiæ walked out of an
official dinner at the Bled Srategic Forum last night.
Jeremiæ left the dinner in protest at not being
allowed to respond to a speech given by UN Special
Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, reports Slovenian state
agency, STA.
At the dinner attended by more than 100 guests,
Ahtisaari gave a speech on Kosovo.
According to the agency, despite having been informed
otherwise, the Serbian minister was not allowed to
give a response to the speech, and walked out of the
dining hall.
Addressing the other participants, the envoy said that
the failure to resolve the Kosovo question was
threatening stability in the western Balkans and that
it was high time that a solution was found.
He urged this to happen as soon as possible after
December 10, when the Contact Group is due to announce
the results of the additional talks between Belgrade
and Priština.
"Neither a return to Serbian rule, which the majority
of citizens would not in any case accept, nor the
continuation of political and legal uncertainty under
the leadership of the international community are the
right choices."
"Rather, the international community has to close this
chapter where history has been used to stir up hate
and violence," Ahtisaari added.
Future EU integration
The Bled Strategic Forum, this year held under the
title Enlarging and Integrating, opened yesterday.
The conference was opened with speeches from the host,
Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janše, and Foreign
Minister, Dimitrij Rupel.
The gathering also saw a series of bilateral meetings
between numerous government representatives from the
participating countries, which was followed by the
official dinner, where the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo
Martti Ahtisaari gave a speech.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Kosovo Prime
Minister Agim Ceku, who was not on the official guest
list.
Furthermore, one of today’s panels at the conference
will be led by the Director of the Slovenian Institute
for Strategic Studies, Borut Grgiè, who until recently
was Rupel’s adviser, and now performs the same role
for Ceku.
The Serbian Delegation at the conference is led by
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremiæ who will have a working
lunch with Rupel.
Jeremiæ will take part in a discussion panel
throughout the day on the theme of Further European
Expansion, while Director of the Balkan Fund for
Democracy Ivan Vejvoda will give a speech on the
matter.
Besides the panel on EU expansion, the conference
participants will discuss energy and climate change,
the future of EU expansion, as well as global
governance.
All the aforementioned themes are linked to Slovenia’s
upcoming EU presidency in the first half of next year.
One of the priorities of the Slovenian presidency will
be EU expansion to the west Balkan states, the
importance of which was underlined by the Slovenian
prime minister and foreign minister, who added that
the time had come to implement the commitments
undertaken in the Thessalonika agenda.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
