Print version Email to a friend

Serbs open Kosovo crossing to boost EU ambitions

Wed, 7 Dec 2011 15:11 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Move seen helping Serbia's candidacy for EU membership

* Barricades removed at former flashpoints with NATO forces

* Kosovo says deal strengthens recognition of new state (Adds detail)

MITROVICA, Kosovo, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Serbs removed barricades they controlled in Kosovo's lawless north on Wednesday in a move expected to help Serbia clear a major hurdle in its bid to join the European Union.

The EU will decide at a summit in Brussels on Friday whether to grant Serbia membership candidate status, and a "yes" would boost regional security, the head of NATO said.

Serbs in a small slice of Kosovo not controlled by the majority ethnic Albanian government have been manning barricades since July in an attempt to prevent Pristina authorities seizing control of two border crossings there.

Kosovo police, customs and NATO peacekeepers (KFOR) were seen checking vehicles at the northern Jarinje border crossing on Wednesday, the site of violent clashes earlier this year, a Reuters eyewitness said.

Traffic was also moving smoothly through the village of Jagnjenica, where two German NATO soldiers were shot and wounded last week as they began removing a Serb-built roadblock.

Replacing barricades made of earth, logs and old cars and trucks, KFOR soldiers were checking drivers and their car trunks before waving them through the new barbed-wire checkpoints.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a two-year war. Belgrade and Pristina struck a deal last week on joint management of border crossings, a key step in Serbia's effort to secure the status of candidate for EU membership on Dec. 9.

"This demonstrates the ability of Serbs (from northern Kosovo) to implement all deals and it is the testimony to Serbia's determination to achieve negotiable solutions," Serbian government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told Reuters.

CANDIDATE STATUS

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a staunch supporter of EU enlargement and Serbia's bid, said there was "definitely" a chance that Serbia would get candidate status on Friday.

"Is it certain it will happen? No. But there is a substantial chance. There are, however, a number of questions still that are to be sorted out," he said in Brussels.

Later on Wednesday, Kosovo Serbs at Jarinje redirected traffic to a separate gravel track about 150 meters (160 yards) away from the border post and the main road, to await implementation of the border deal that is scheduled to be completed on Dec. 26.

KFOR troops also established a separate checkpoint there to control traffic. There were no incidents.

"KFOR has full freedom of movement and we will be using this other alternative road for now," Branko Ninic, the mayor of the nearby town of Leposavic, told Reuters.

On Tuesday, Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, said the border deal represented tacit recognition of Pristina's declaration of independence in 2008.

"The agreement is a tantamount to de jure recognition of the Republic of Kosovo by Serbia," Thaci told his cabinet. Kosovo has been recognised by more than 80 countries, including the United States and most EU members.

Mihajlovic dismissed Thaci's remarks and said the border deal was in line with the United Nations resolution 1244 that regulated the pullout of Serb forces from Kosovo and the deployment of NATO troops in 1999.

NATO's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, condemned the violence in northern Kosovo but praised the removal of the first roadblocks.

However, he said: "We need the removal of all barricades, we need complete freedom of movement.

Of the possibility of Serbia being granted candidate status on Friday, he said: "In general, I do believe that any step that can improve the relationship between countries in the region and the Euro-Atlantic structures, including the European Union and NATO, will benefit not only the region but Europe as a whole." (Reporting by Branislav Krstic; Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Ben Harding)