EU president Slovenia recognizes Kosovo’s secession
Current European Union president Slovenia recognized Kosovo’s unilateral secession on Wednesday, becoming the first former Yugoslav republic to do so.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, March 06, 2008
"This is not a decision against Serbia. Slovenia is not doing this for itself, we are doing this on the basis of European and international policy," Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel told parliament before the vote.
Slovenian managers had urged the government and parliament not to be hasty about recognizing Kosovo, saying this could endanger Slovenia's economic relations with Serbia and Russia.
A document published in January by the Ljubljana daily "Dnevnik" showed Slovenia had received precise instructions from Washington on how to coordinate Kosovo's secession within the EU.
In the document from a meeting between Slovenian officials and US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, the American official explained that Washington was "trying to have as many states outside the EU recognize Kosovo during the initial several days after independence declaration", and that it is "lobbying hard in Japan, Turkey, as well as in Arab states that had expressed readiness to recognize Kosovo".
The Slovenian diplomat held responsible for the leak was dismissed and the editor who published the report was fired.
