Belfast accord could be model for Kosovo, says Serb president

SERBIA’S PRESIDENT Boris Tadic has identified the 1998 Belfast Agreement as a possible model for a deal on Kosovo’s status that could open the way for both countries to join the European Union.

Belgrade’s bid to secure official EU candidate status at this month’s EU summit was scuppered by unrest in Kosovo, where clashes between ethnic Serbs and Nato peacekeepers in recent weeks caused dozens of injuries.

Several EU members, led by Germany, want Serbia to do more to come to agreement with the government of 90 per cent ethnic-Albanian Kosovo, and put an end to disputes and occasional violence that threaten to derail the neighbours’ bids to enter the bloc.

With nationalist parties resurgent however, Mr Tadic is under pressure at home not to be seen capitulating to the leaders of Kosovo, whose 2008 declaration of independence from Belgrade is not recognised by Serbia or by allies like Russia, China or some EU states including Spain.

With general elections looming next year, Mr Tadic is keen to secure progress with the EU but is also wary of being accused of abandoning the 100,000 or so Serbs who still live in Kosovo, which is seen by many Serbs as the historical and religious cradle of their nation.

“There is the Irish model whereby the Republic of Ireland does not recognise the division of its territorial integrity and despite that, it is a member of the European Union,” Mr Tadic said.

He seemed to be referring to part of the Belfast Agreement that provided for the so-called “19th amendment” to the Constitution of Ireland.

This states: “It is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island.”

Greater examination of whether an Irish model is feasible for Kosovo is likely to take place next year, when Ireland chairs the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The organisation’s largest field mission is in Kosovo.