WRITTEN QUESTION E-0471/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Serbian and Albanian initiatives to speed up a permanent solution to the administration of Kosovo

1. Is the Council aware that the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic wants to convene a conference in the summer of 2003 to discuss the future of Kosovo, which has no longer been under Serbian control since 1999, and that after the withdrawal of half the NATO troops from Kosovo by the end of 2003 he wants the Serbian army to return to the area, partly because the preamble to the constitution of 4 February 2003 for the new federation of Serbia and Montenegro says that Kosovo should be part of the territory of Serbia?

2. Is the Council also aware that 42 members of the Kosovon Parliament have called for the independence of Kosovo to be declared in February 2003, partly in order to give the inhabitants better protection against the feared return of domination by Serbia of the predominantly Albanian-speaking population?

3. Does the Council see the Serbian Prime Minister's claim as a means of securing the support of domestic public opinion after the elimination of ex-president Kostunica of former Yugoslavia who has twice failed to be elected president of Serbia, as compensation for giving up rights to the much smaller state of Montenegro, or as a bargaining chip to allow Serbia subsequently to take over Republika Srpska, also inhabited by Serbs, in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina?

4. What does the Council consider can be done in the immediate future to allay the concerns felt on both sides as far as possible and to find solutions that are seen by both the Albanians and Serbs as steps towards good neighbourly relations, such as the extension of Albanian autonomy and the strengthening of cooperation between the Serbs now effectively spread over three states, Serbia, Republika Srpska and Kosovo, north of Mitrovica/Kosovska Mitrovica?

Source: De Volkskrant newspaper, 5 and 8 February 2003.

Joint answerto Written Questions E-0471/03 and E-0472/03

(29 September 2003)

The Council is fully aware of the statements made by the Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic on Kosovo prior to his assassination. It is also fully aware of the recent initiative of some members of the Kosovo Assembly to pass a resolution on the Independence of Kosovo. In the GAERC Conclusions of 24 February 2003 the Council urged all parties, both in Belgrade and in Pristina, to refrain from any unilateral initiatives which were incompatible with the objective of a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo and may jeopardise stability and the normalisation process not only in Kosovo but in the entire region. The Secretary General/High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, in direct contacts both with the authorities and in Pristina has also reiterated and emphasised the concern of the Council about recent destabilising statements and initiatives and urged all parties to refrain from unilateral acts.

The Council firmly believes that all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 remain valid. The final status of Kosovo will need therefore to be addressed in due course in line with that Resolution, involving the Government in Belgrade and the elected leaders and representatives of the local political institutions in Pristina.

In supporting the UNMIK and the UN Secretary General's Special Representative, the Council supports unreservedly the standards before status policy. This policy is an essential prerequisite to facilitation at the appropriate time of the political process designed to determine Kosovo's future status in accordance with Resolution 1244. In this connection, the Council in its conclusions of 24 February 2003 gave UNMIK's efforts to gradually transfer remaining competencies to the provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo by the end of 2003, except those reserved for the SRSG under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, its full support. It also reiterated in its conclusions of 14 April 2003 the importance it attached to the most recent initiative of the SRSG to initiate direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on practical issues of mutual interest.