Tadic says Serbia wants compromise with EU on Kosovo

Serbia is ready to talk to Western countries, EU members in particular, to find compromise regarding its draft resolution on Kosovo submitted to the UN, President Boris Tadic said on Saturday (August 28th). The resolution, filed in late July, was in response to an opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which said that Kosovo’s independence declaration did not violate international law. Serbia’s draft calls for new talks between Belgrade and Pristina, without mentioning Kosovo’s status. Serbian representatives will be visiting Brussels to discuss “possible changes to the draft resolution that would make it acceptable both for Belgrade and for the Western countries,” Tadic said. He also reiterated Serbia would never recognise Kosovo’s independence.

On Friday, Serbian Minister for Kosovo Oliver Ivanovic dismissed a land swap proposed by the International Crises Group (ICG) as a way to settle the Kosovo issue. In a report Thursday, the ICG called on Pristina and Belgrade to start negotiations on unsolved issues, proposing three different solutions for Serb-dominated northern Kosovo — the Ahtisaari Plan, extended autonomy and territorial exchange. Kosovo is already under “de facto and de jure control of the Serbian community, and there is no reason to contemplate any exchanges”, Ivanovic told Radio Free Europe. Pristina has also rejected such a deal.