Serbia and Kosovo agree to attend Western Balkan conference

Updated: 2010-04-30 05

(Xinhua)

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Representatives of Serbia and Kosovo have confirmed they will be attending the upcoming West Balkan regional conference scheduled for June 2 in Sarajevo, reported the Belgrade daily Blic on Thursday.

The announcement comes at the conclusion of Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini's two-day trip to Belgrade and Pristina, and after much speculation that a compromise was unlikely, given Serbia's strict policy with respect to Kosovo.

Serbia routinely boycotts any international meeting where Kosovo is recognized as an independent state. Serbian President Boris Tadic refused to go to the last EU-Balkans summit in Slovenia in March as his country does not recognize Kosovo's self- declared independence since February 2008.

Frattini announced in Pristina on Thursday that Balkan leaders would be recognized by name and state only, without state symbols or attributes. The compromise solution offered by Frattini follows the "Gymnich format," named after the German castle where the first European Union foreign ministers' meeting was held in 1974. The informal setting allows participants to engage one another and exchange ideas, but does not produce conclusions.

"If the representatives of the countries are presented in name only, that is acceptable to Kosovo," said Dzavit Beciri, the spokesperson for the Kosovo president. "The only requirement is that all countries are represented equally."

Nonetheless, Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic insisted that representatives of the UN mission to Kosovo (UNMIK) should also be present at the conference in Sarajevo, according to the Serbian news agency Beta.

Responding to questions pertaining to the possible inclusion of UN representatives, Beciri said that only representatives of Kosovo's institutions could speak on their behalf.