http://au.news.yahoo.com/080305/19/1620s.html
Thursday March 6, 05:53 AM Serbian government split on EU, Kosovo BELGRADE (AFP) - Serbian ultra-nationalists moved a resolution in parliament Wednesday to freeze European Union integration over Kosovo, sparking a split in the shaky coalition government. The Serbian Radical Party's (SRS) draft resolution has been backed by the party of nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the Socialists of late autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic. But it has been opposed by the Democratic Party (DS) of pro-Western President Boris Tadic and the liberal G17-Plus party, which form the ruling coalition with Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). The draft requires Serbia to freeze rapprochement talks with the European Union unless Brussels recognises Belgrade's sovereignty over Kosovo, which proclaimed independence from Serbia on February 17. In addition, it demands that an EU mission to Kosovo, dubbed EULEX and considered "illegal" by Belgrade, withdraw from the territory and that EU members which have recognised independent Kosovo reverse their decisions. However, although the draft was put on the agenda, the debate was not immediately opened as parliamentary speaker Oliver Dulic, a member of Tadic's DS, referred it back to the government. Since ministers from the DS and G17-Plus have a cabinet majority, Kostunica could refuse to call a cabinet session, obstructing its work. In response, the DS could block the parliament, refusing to continue a session opened earlier on Wednesday. The political crisis mirrors one a month ago, when Kostunica and his party refused to accept a political deal the European Union offered Belgrade ahead of Kosovo's independence declaration. Tadic said meanwhile that any Serbian stoppage of the EU negotiations would be "contrary to the principles on which the government was formed," the news agency Beta reported. "If the government does not obtain the support of the parliament ... for European integration, they (the DSS and SRS) could form a new majority, or we will have new elections," Beta quoted Tadic as saying in an interview to be published in the weekly Vreme on Thursday. The president denounced "the idea of interrupting the negotiations with the EU by setting conditions impossible to meet." Meanwhile, the DSS spokesman Andreja Mladenovic, said the best solution would be to call "a referendum to define if the citizens of Serbia want to enter the EU with or without Kosovo." In Brussels, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Serbia to heed the "silent" pro-European majority of its citizens and commit to Europe, despite Belgrade's anger over losing Kosovo. The vast majority of the 27-nation EU bloc -- including leading members Britain, France and Germany -- have recognised ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. Brussels halted talks with Belgrade about the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement on February 22, the day after embassies of Western backers of Kosovo's independence were attacked in the Serbian capital.
