Luxembourg: Individual EU recognition of Kosovo would be fatal
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said on Wednesday it would be fatal if the EU members individually recognized Kosovo's potential independence.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, September 20, 2007
"The EU must act in a coordinated manner," Asselborn told the Vienna daily Courier, asked whether the EU members would individually acknowledge Kosovo's independence.
"We Europeans must solve the difficult problem of Kosovo. There is a real 10 percent chance of the problem being solved through negotiations between the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians," he said.
At the remark on EU's differences with Russia on Kosovo and other issues, Asselborn said that it would not be good "if we cannot cohabitate with Russia on the continent we share."
Several European countries have made it clear recently they oppose any kind of solution for Kosovo made outside of the U.N. Security Council. Among them are Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, and Cyprus, as well as the members that were initially not against Martti Ahtisaari's plan. The group, headed by Germany, includes the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Malta, and Sweden.
No EU member has so far publicly indicated it would recognize a potential unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence.
