Serbia-Kosovo row overshadows EU-Balkans summit

While almost all 27 EU nations have recognised Kosovo's independence, Serbia still considers it to be a rogue province, under UN control.

LJUBLJANA, March 19, 2010 (AFP) - Slovenia is on Saturday to host an EU-Balkans summit aimed at speeding up the region's European integration that has been overshadowed by a row between Serbia and Kosovo.

The summit near Ljubljana, which may be attended by EU President Herman Van Rompuy, was conceived by Slovenia and Croatia whose independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 ushered in a decade of regional bloodshed.

After reaching a deal last year to solve their 18-year border dispute that had blocked Croatia's EU accession talks, Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor and his Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor saw their agreement as a template for other Balkan conflicts, including between Serbia and Kosovo.

"We believe that is the model on which we all should continue building and solving eventual problems," Kosor said at a recent meeting with Pahor and Serbia's President Boris Tadic.

But optimism over improved relations between EU member Slovenia and its neighbour Croatia, which hopes to join the bloc by 2012, was not echoed by some Balkan states.

Even Pahor has admitted the summit is "a mission almost impossible" given the difficulty of bringing to the table the leaders of Serbia and its breakaway province Kosovo, which declared independence in February 2008.

Belgrade has said it would boycott the meeting if Pristina's leaders attended as state representatives, with Serb officials only prepared to meet them if they attend under the United Nations administration UNMIK flag.

Kosovo's authorities have meanwhile insisted they would only attend as state representatives.

While almost all 27 EU nations have recognised Kosovo's independence, Serbia still considers the large ethnic-Albanian enclave to be a rogue province, under UN control.

"I'll do whatever is necessary for the success of the conference," Pahor said Thursday ahead of a last minute trip to Brussels to meet Van Rompuy.

After those talks, a diplomat in Brussels said that Van Rompuy might stay away due to "problems" between Slovenia, Serbia and Kosovo.

"For the time being, there are problems and if they aren't resolved before Saturday, I don't expect the president to take part in something which will end up in stalemate," the diplomat said.

Pahor met Serbia's Tadic to discuss the issue on Wednesday, and sought to drum up support from other Balkan states for the summit that would bring together the leaders of Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania for the first time since 1991.

"We have to deal with a large volume of problems that nobody has managed to solve so far," Pahor said.

Slovenian media have said that one way round the problem would be for Serb and Kosovar leaders to attend the summit by avoiding any state symbols, presenting it instead as a gathering of regional leaders similar to a ministerial meeting held earlier this month in Tirana.

Ljubljana still hopes that whatever its name, the gathering will nevertheless create the conditions for an improved dialogue within the Balkans and between the region and Brussels.

"The conference should send a fresh new wind from the region towards the EU," Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar said earlier this week.