New Kosova Report

Serbian cabinet votes down anti-EU resolution

Thursday, 06 March 2008

Serbian Government building

BELGRADE - Serbian ministers today voted against a proposed parliamentary resolution to freeze European Union integration over Kosovo, the government said in a statement.

'The majority of votes of the Serbian government went to the foreign ministry' which, unlike the ministry for Kosovo, had argued about the negative consequences of adopting the resolution, it said.

The ultra-nationalist Radical Party moved the resolution in parliament yesterday, triggering a political crisis that could cause the uneasy coalition government to collapse.

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic is a member of pro-Western President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party, and forms a cabinet majority with the G17-Plus party of Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic.

The minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, is a member of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

Kostunica's party backed the Radicals' resolution along with the Socialist Party of late autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic.

The resolution condemns and asks EU to revoke its decision to deploy a mission to Kosovo, and declares that Serbia would only want to be integrated into the European Union in its entirety, including Kosovo.

The parliament of ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia last month. It has since been recognised by the United States and most EU member nations.