Serbia and Kosovo found a “European” solution to the trade dispute that threatens to hamper Serbia’s aim to win European Union candidate status by year’s end, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said.
The EU “is very satisfied with the latest agreement on customs stamps,” Van Rompuy said today in Brussels after meeting Kosovar President Atifete Jahjaga. “These were truly European solutions to very difficult issues.”
Van Rompuy, who visits the Serbian capital Belgrade on Sept. 9, said the two former Yugoslav republics need to make further progress on Kosovo’s telecommunications and energy systems and agree to take part in regional forums to “bring both sides closer to the EU.”
Serbia is trying to win EU candidate status this year and secure financial aid as it struggles to find a compromise solution for its former province. Tensions increased after Kosovo’s government decided to send special police forces to the Serb-dominated northern region of Kosovo to seize control of border crossings there.
Serbia, which refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and the breakaway region struck an agreement on “status-neutral documents” on Sept 2., according to the Serbia’s chief negotiator for Kosovo, Borislav Stefanovic.
Under the compromise, Serbia will recognize stamps on documents that say “Kosovo Customs” without any state insignia such as the Kosovo flag or coat-of-arms, he said.
Kosovo, wedged between Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, declared independence in 2008, nine years after North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops drove out Serbian forces from the province. Kosovo is recognized by 22 out of EU’s 27 members.
Visa-Free Travel
“Both Kosovo and Serbia should soon become members of the European Union and in this process they have to help each other as neighbors,” said Jahjaga in Brussels.
Kosovo is the only former Yugoslav republic that has yet to win visa-free travel to the EU’s Schengen area, which allows unobstructed travel between members. Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia won the privilege in 2009 while Albania and Bosnia- Herzegovina were granted visa-free travel to the Schengen region in 2010.
Slovenia became a member of the world’s largest trading bloc in 2004, while Croatia is set to become the 28th EU member in 2013. Before the trade dispute with Kosovo, Serbia aimed to gain EU candidate status by year’s end.
Source bloomberg.com
