Serbia is in line to be rewarded for its acceptance to water down a controversial resolution on Kosovo with an acceleration of its European Union membership bid, several foreign ministers from the bloc indicated Friday.
Facing isolation, Serbia on Thursday replaced a hard-line draft UN resolution with a softer one, abandoning its earlier call for the condemnation of Kosovo's secession and negotiations on its status. Instead, it acknowledged the EU's offer to facilitate talks between Belgrade and Pristina.
"This, which can now be seen as a new development, is also a very good basis for handing Serbia's membership application to the European Commission," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said ahead of a two-day meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the handover - the next technical step in Serbia's EU membership bid - should happen before the end of the year.
"Of course it should. And I believe it will," he told reporters. Finland's chief diplomat, Alexander Stubb, also sounded a positive note, as he said that "Serbia can expect a continuation of the integration process." But the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who led efforts to convince Serbia to revise its Kosovo resolution, was more cautious, saying she did not make any promises to Belgrade. The ministers' informal gathering - known as "Gymnich" in EU circles - was also billed as an opportunity to discuss relations with strategic partners such as China and Turkey, amidst concerns that the bloc's global clout was waning.
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