Independence of Kosovo

Fule: Kosovo has to work more on reforms

BELGRADE -- Kosovo has finished the negotiations on the SAA agreement with the EU, "but it has to work more on reforms and relations with its neighbors."

This is according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule who was in Priština on Tuesday.

PRISTINA - Kosovo has finished the negotiations concerning the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, but it has to work more on reforms and relations with its neighbours, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Tuesday.

He told the Kosovo parliament he was pleased to confirm that Kosovo had completed the negotiations on the SAA with the EU on Friday.

BELGRADE - Establishment of a Kosovo army would increase the lack of security for Serbs and other non-Albanian communities because it would, in fact, be a successor of the terrorist "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), Milovan Drecun, the former chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija, said on Tuesday.

VIENNA - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said that Serbia cannot impose sanctions on Russia, as Moscow has never introduced sanctions against Belgrade, underlining that Serbia is trying to take a balanced position in relation to Ukraine.

Belgrade-Priština relations "far from normalized"

VIENNA -- First Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dačić says that Serbia cannot impose sanctions on Russia, because that country never made a similar move aimed against Serbia.

EU commissioner meets with mayors from north

PRIŠTINA -- EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule will on Tuesday in Kosovska Mitrovica hold a meeting with mayors of Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo.

The vote on transforming the Kosovo Security Forces into the new Kosovo Armed Forces was expected on Monday but MPs decided to postpone it amid continuing disagreements between political parties over the Serb minority’s demands.

Party leaders met on Monday at the US embassy in Pristina to try to forge a consensus but local media reported that no agreement was reached.

In his first visit to Belgrade after the country’s new government was formed, Fuele said on Monday that Serbia, which started EU accession talks in January, has made impressive progress.

Michael Davenport, head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said one of the most important results of the EU-led dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was increased levels of trust between the two sides.
Davenport said the EU's assistance in the talks, which have been supported by other partners, including the US, had been key to achieving progress in the discussions.

PRISTINA- KFOR Commander General Salvatore Farina said on Wednesday the security situation in Kosovo had improved.

He met at the KFOR headquarters in Pristina with the mayors of four northern Kosovo municipalities where Serbs are the majority to discuss the general situation in Kosovo, particularly focusing on the situation in the north of the territory.