EU delays signature of agreement with Serbia

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union said on Wednesday it will not sign a pact on ties with Serbia this week as planned, after Belgrade's nationalist prime minister blocked the move. The two sides were to have signed the deal on trade, visas and education on Thursday but Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica denounced it as a trick on Tuesday, bringing Belgrade's ruling coalition close to collapse.



Kostunica said the pact was a sop to Serbia by the European Union for the imminent loss of the breakaway province of Kosovo. EU Commissioner Olli Rehn accused Kostunica of going back on a longstanding understanding not to link Serbia's EU ties to Kosovo, for which the EU on Monday authorized a supervisory mission ahead of an independence declaration seen this month.



"With this blockage, certain politicians are in a way filing for a divorce before the marriage has yet even been agreed," Rehn told a news briefing. "I find that...rather regrettable."



"It is truly sad for Serbia that politicians continue to put power games ahead of their own citizens' interests," he added, saying that Kostunica had agreed some 18 months ago not to link Serbia's EU ties to Kosovo's fate.



EU foreign ministers offered the deal last week to prevent a nationalist backlash in Sunday's presidential election, narrowly won by pro-EU incumbent Boris Tadic over a pro-Russian challenger, Reuters reports.