Serb EU snub is home politics: incoming EU presidency
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Serbia's threat to turn its back on  EU membership over Kosovo probably has more to do with  electioneering than political reality, incoming EU president  Slovenia said on Thursday.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon said Friday he could not yet give his blessing to a planned 1,800-strong European Union mission for Kosovo because of the international dispute over the future of the breakaway Serbian province.The EU wants to send a policing and administrative mission to Kosovo to replace the current U.N. force, which took control alongside NATO peacekeepers in 1999 after war ended between Serbian troops and separatist ethnic Albanians.'I will have to closely and carefully assess the situation as it develops,' Ban told reporters after talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency. Read more
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Croatia's government is hoping to secure a date for accession talks when European Union leaders huddle for their winter summit in Brussels next Thursday despite signs of growing Euroscepticism at home.
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European Union leaders are set to  offer Serbia a fast track to candidacy for membership of the  bloc and pledge to step up preparations for a police mission to  stabilize Kosovo, a draft statement for Friday's EU summit  said.
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BELGRADE, Feb 12 (IPS) - Sweet talk on the joys of European Union (EU)  membership is quite a favourite among leaders of the Balkans,  particularly in their public appearances. But when it comes to  serious talk, the EU looks quite far.
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Serbia's presidential election paves way for response to Kosovo's declaration of independence
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Days before presidential polls in  Serbia pitting a pro-EU liberal against a nationalist, the  European Union announced on Friday it would launch discussions  on offering Serbs visa-free access to the bloc.
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KIEV, Ukraine  - Ukrainian president-elect Viktor  Yushchenko, his inauguration stalled by legal challenges, is to  make his first foreign visit to a major European institution,  officials said Wednesday, in an apparent snub to Moscow.
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Serbia's parliament was set to adopt a  resolution on Wednesday implicitly rejecting membership of the  European Union and NATO if the West recognizes the independence  of Kosovo.
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in an article published today in The Independent, said he would boycott a scheduled EU-Africa Summit slated for December if Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe attends.  Brown accused Mugabe of having left his country in an "appalling and tragic situation." The December summit would be the first between the EU and Africa in 7-years. The current holder of the EU Presidency, Portugal says it has yet to make a decision on whether to invite Mugabe to the EU-Africa summit planned for December in Lisbon.
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The new European Commission president said Thursday he will not back down on his selection of Rocco Buttiglione as justice commissioner, despite controversy over Buttiglione&#39;s anti-gay comments, the Telegraph newspaper reports.
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"We have seen what happened in former Yugoslavia when the European Union did not take things in hand."  European Union leaders, worried that Kosovo's push for independence could trigger instability in the Balkans, were set to offer Serbia a fast-track route to joining the bloc at a summit on Friday. via Reuters
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The Serb parliament is expected to adopt a resolution on Wednesday implicitly rejecting membership of the European Union and NATO if the West recognizes the independence of Kosovo.
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BRUSSELS, Jul 25 (IPS) - Top European Union politicians stated their  determination to maintain a unified stance on Kosovo this week as  they analysed the latest twists in the saga of the disputed  territory.
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"The sending of the proposed EU mission ... would be an act which jeopardizes the sovereignty, territorial integrity and the constitution of the Republic of Serbia"  BELGRADE, Serbia : Serbia plans to adopt a set of retaliatory measures against Western states if they recognize Kosovo's independence, including the possibility of severing diplomatic ties with the United ... via International Herald Tribune
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LONDON (CP) - The European Union&#39;s political machinery was thrown into reverse on Wednesday as the new president of the European Commission backed down from a vote on his proposed cabinet over a controversial Italian commissioner.
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The EU's biggest four countries are pushing to impose and oversee independence in Kosovo without a fresh UN mandate, risking the ire of Russia and Serbia