The would-be EU presidency said here Thursday that the European Union must be ready to guide Kosovo to independence after the U.N. Security Council failed to settle the future status of the breakaway Serb province.
"The EU and Kosovo have to agree what to do next in a reasonable manner and without any blackmail," Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel told reporters. Slovenia is to take over the half-year rotating EU presidency from Portugal on Jan. 1.
"It's clear that certain processes cannot be held back," he added, saying he expected the province's status to be resolved by the end of the Slovenian presidency at the latest.
"We are ready. If I interpret the mood right in the EU, we are prepared to recognize the reality that exists in the Western Balkans," Rupel said.
The U.N. Security Council discussed Kosovo on Wednesday but failed to find a compromise over the future status of Kosovo.
Backed the United States and most of EU nations, Kosovo has sought independence form Serbia, but the latter, supported by Russia, strongly opposes it except offering broad autonomy.
The EU remains divided on whether to support Kosovo's drive to unilaterally declare independence early next year.
A few nations, including Cyprus, Greece and Romania, are unwilling to recognize unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo mindful that the move would set bad example for other separatist groups.
The EU has decided to send a police and civilian mission to Kosovo, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, to take over the administration from the United Nations.
Source: Xinhua
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