EU agrees to open accession talks with Serbia

PanARMENIAN.Net - EU leaders have agreed to open accession talks with Serbia, whose bid to join the EU was long delayed by a dispute over Kosovo, BBC News reported.

EU-Serbia negotiations would begin in January 2014 at the latest, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said at a Brussels EU summit.

In April, the EU brokered a key deal between Serbia and Kosovo, which broke away from Belgrade in a war in 1999. Talks on an EU association agreement with Kosovo will also get under way.

Stabilization and association agreements with the EU cover trade, economic and political relations. They are seen as important landmarks for applicant countries seeking EU membership.

The summit conclusions say that before January "the negotiating framework will be... confirmed by the European Council" - a sign of the EU leaders' commitment to membership talks with Serbia.

The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, called the Serbia decision "indeed historic".

The EU leaders also welcomed the entry of Croatia into the 27-nation bloc, which will happen on Monday, July 1. A big celebration is to take place in the Croatian capital Zagreb on Sunday night.

Croatia fought a bitter war against Serb forces during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It will become the EU's 28th member, and the second from former Yugoslavia, after Slovenia.

Van Rompuy said EU officials would visit both Serbia and Kosovo on Monday, in a sign of the EU's commitment to their integration with the bloc.

Many countries recognize Kosovo as independent, but Serbia is among those, including Russia and China, that do not. Five of the 27 EU countries do not recognize Kosovo: Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus.

Under the April deal the ethnic Albanian government in Kosovo accepted a high degree of autonomy for Serb-majority areas in the territory's north. Belgrade insisted that the deal did not mean Serbian recognition of Kosovo's independence.