De Gucht: Belgium signed the SAA with Serbia without Kosovo
Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said on Tuesday that Brussels signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia without Kosovo.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, May 06, 2008
"My understanding is that we signed the agreement with Serbia proper, without Kosovo", De Gucht said.
His remarks prompted immediate reactions in Serbia, where Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called them a "proof that the SAA signing was wrong", while the Democratic party of President Boris Tadic dismissed the Belgian interpretation, arguing the agreement was "status neutral".
The office of EU High Representative Javier Solana also said the agreement was "status neutral".
However, the main problem regarding the issue is not how the EU looks at it - since the EU is not in the recognition business - but whether EU member states which recognized Kosovo's secession and signed the SAA consider Serbia in its frontiers recognized at the UN, that is including Kosovo.
