Serbia and Kosovo Reach Power-Sharing Agreement

[Frodo]

Serbia and Kosovo Reach Agreement on Power-Sharing

By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: April 19, 2013

PARIS — After months of difficult negotiations, Serbia and Kosovo reached an agreement on Friday aimed at overcoming ethnic enmities in Kosovo, a former Serbian province. It is a milestone that officials hope will enhance stability in the region and clear a path for both countries to join the European Union.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, told reporters that the prime ministers of the two countries had initialed an agreement during talks in Brussels. “It is very important that now what we are seeing is a step away from the past and, for both of them, a step closer to Europe,” she said.

Serbian officials said the accord was subject to approval by “state bodies” in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. But European officials said it was unlikely that Serbia would backtrack.

The European Union is scheduled to meet Monday in Brussels to decide whether to allow Serbia to start negotiations for entry into the group, and analysts said the accord was likely to swing the decision in Serbia’s favor.

[MaxQue]

Didn't the nationalists won last election in Serbia?

[Famous Mortimer]

Didn't the nationalists won last election in Serbia?

The diplomatically untouchable Serbian Radical Party would have won but their leader was clever enough to "break away" from them (even though he took a majority of the party's members) and form a shinny new "moderate" nationalist party.

[Famous Mortimer]

As far as I can tell, this isn't much of an agreement at all.

Serbs in Kosovo will have autonomy and Serbia thinks that's nice but they still don't recognize Kosovo's independence.

Then again, these proposals are always extremely vague and hard to understand.

I remember the Serbian proposal to try and prevent Kosovo from going UDI. It was that Kosovo would have it's own parliament, police, A UN SEAT, but still somehow be part of Serbia? It made no sense at all but no Western news agencies bothered to get clarification.

[MaxQue]

Didn't the nationalists won last election in Serbia?

The diplomatically untouchable Serbian Radical Party would have won but their leader was clever enough to "break away" from them (even though he took a majority of the party's members) and form a shinny new "moderate" nationalist party.

I'm quite aware, but the break away doesn't sounds nationalist at all.