http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=07&dd=11&nav_category=92&nav_id=42373
Ceku to West: Sidestep UN 11 July 2007 | 17:13 | Source: AP *BRUSSELS, STRASBOURG -- Agim Ceku urged the EU Wednesday to sidestep the UN Security Council on the issue of Kosovo's future status. * "It seems to us that we will not have an acceptable solution in the UN Security Council," Kosovo's prime minister said at a joint news conference with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "For us it is not enough for countries in the international community to say we are waiting for a Security Council resolution. We need to stop pretending that the Security Council has an answer to every question," he said. Ceku said the Albanian side wanted "a new approach, for a braver approach to Kosovo's status. This is a unique opportunity to find a European solution." But Solana immediately responded, saying the European Union was united in its position that the Security Council should be the final arbiter on the issue of Kosovo's independence. "I do not share the approach of Prime Minister Ceku on this sort of intrinsic pessimism about the United Nations ... which at the end of the day is the heart of the multilateral system," Solana said. The European Union is supposed to deploy a mission there to replace the UN administration. But the Europeans have made it clear they will not do so until the Security Council adopts a resolution clearly mandating the transfer of authority. "What we need to do is engage in negotiations which will give us a clear mandate on Kosovo. If that negotiation needs more time it needs to be made available," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates told journalists in Strasbourg. Lisbon assumed the EU's rotating six-month presidency July 1. The draft resolution at the United Nations - calling for four months of talks - would address Russia's major objections, but it would almost certainly anger Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, the AP reports.
