Downing Street Says

» Friday, December 14, 2007

Kosovo

Asked if the Government would be pushing for the EU to recognise Kosovan independence, the PMS said that the Government’s position, which was increasingly the position of the EU, was that we would like some form of supervised independence for Kosovo. As people would know, there was now increasing understanding across the EU that the Troika process had not created the consensus that was anticipated and the present situation was unsustainable. Therefore, the sooner we could find a managed solution the better. There were proposals from the Ahtisaari Group, which the UK were supportive of, for a form of supervised independence and that’s what the Government believed was the most constructive way forward.

In response to the question of whether the EU could implement the Ahtisaari proposals without a mandate from the Security Council, the PMS said that it was hoped that this would be under a UN mandate of some form and there would be discussions in the Security Council during the course of next week. There were likely to be further discussions in the New Year, so we would take stock of the situation following that.

Asked to what extent was the UK trying to get unity around support for the idea of Kosovan independence in the New Year, the PMS said that what the Government was trying to get unity around was the idea of supervised independence, a concept set out by Ahtisaari.

Asked what the PMS thought Serbia’s reaction and views would be to the Government’s stance on Kosovo, journalists were informed that the Government was very keen to see the Western Balkans integrated back into the European family, but as with any country that seeks to be included in the Union, there were criteria that had to be met. In terms of Serbia, there would have to a resolution on the outstanding issues from the Balkan War.

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» Friday, December 14, 2007

Kosovo

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