Serbia coalition close to collapse over EU accord

[Marulus]

Serbia coalition close to collapse over EU accord

Ellie Tzortzi

Reuters North American News Service

Feb 05, 2008 12:56 EST

BELGRADE, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Serbia's prime minister on Tuesday denounced an offer to sign an accord with the European Union as a trick to lure it into rubber-stamping an independent Kosovo, piling pressure on his tottering coalition.

The statement by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica exposed the deep rift with pro-Western President Boris Tadic over Serbia's EU accession drive and could threaten plans to sign a deal that would put Serbia on the road to membership.

Tadic won re-election on Sunday on a pledge of pursuing EU membership no matter what happens with Serbia's breakaway province where the 90-percent Albanian majority is poised to declare independence this month, with the West's backing.

The EU, which on Monday authorised a supervisory mission to Kosovo ahead of its independence declaration, had hoped to sign the accord -- focusing on trade, visa and education issues -- on Feb 7 in the hope of preventing a nationalist backlash.

"The EU's proposal to sign a political agreement with Serbia while at the same time sending a mission to break apart our state is a deception aimed at getting Serbia effectively to sign its agreement to Kosovo independence," Kostunica said.

Tadic's Democratic Party and their technocrat allies G17+ could, mathematically, outvote Kostunica and his allies in government and go on to Brussels for the signing ceremony.

It was not clear, however whether the accord would be valid as such or require parliamentary approval.

Kostunica has rallied the nationalist Radicals, Serbia's strongest single party and collected enough signatures for an urgent parliament session, expected to be a showdown over the country's future direction.

"The parliament orders the government to neither sign the interim political agreement... nor the Stabilisation and Association Agreement," as long as the EU does not redress the reasons for this order, said a draft resolution put forward for the session by Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

The DSS and Radicals together have a majority in parliament.

"DEEP CRISIS"

An explanatory annex noted the EU offer "does not express anywhere the
EU's readiness to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia."

Kosovo has been ruled by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO forces pushed out Serb troops accused of killing civilians while fighting a brutal counter-insurgency war. Serbia, which sees the province as its heartland, rejects a breakaway.

Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilic, a Kostunica ally, conceded in an interview "the government is in a deep crisis".

"I fear it might fall this month because of Kosovo and the signing of the accord with the EU," he told Press daily on Tuesday. If Kosovo went ahead and declared independence this month, a general election could be held in May, he added.

Former U.S. ambassador to Serbia William Montgomery warned Kostunica's stance was "not simply rhetoric".

He "seems determined to force the EU to choose between its plans for Kosovo and its relationship with Serbia. "It is hard to see how the impasse can end "any other way than in a breakdown in the ruling coalition," he wrote in a weekly column.

The session has not been scheduled yet, but Tadic's Democrats and his allies have made it clear they will not back down on the EU after months of being pushed by Kostunica into making Kosovo the main issue.

Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said "there could not, and would not, be any compromise on Serbia's European future".

In Brussels, the spokeswoman of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said everything was ready for a Thursday signing.

"We'd like very much to sign," Cristina Gallach said. "We think it's a good offer, and at the same time we understand very well that ... they have to undergo internal discussions."

(Additional reporting by Ljilja Cvekic and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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