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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| EU set for Serbia deal on Kosovo | EU set for Serbia deal on Kosovo |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| European Union leaders are expected to offer Serbia a fast track route towards candidacy for EU membership. | European Union leaders are expected to offer Serbia a fast track route towards candidacy for EU membership. |
| The plan is seen as a way of stabilising the Balkans, with Kosovo set to declare independence from Serbia against its wishes. | The plan is seen as a way of stabilising the Balkans, with Kosovo set to declare independence from Serbia against its wishes. |
| EU leaders, meeting in Brussels, are also likely to pledge to step up preparations for a big police mission in Kosovo if it leaves Serbia. | |
| Kosovo's future is widely seen as the biggest test for EU foreign policy. | |
| Draft statement | Draft statement |
| A draft summit statement says the EU is ready to play a leading part in ensuring stability in the region by stepping up preparations for a mission for Kosovo of up to 1,800 police, judges and prosecutors - the biggest ever undertaken by the bloc. | A draft summit statement says the EU is ready to play a leading part in ensuring stability in the region by stepping up preparations for a mission for Kosovo of up to 1,800 police, judges and prosecutors - the biggest ever undertaken by the bloc. |
| It will also promise economic assistance to the breakway Serbian region, and repeat that the future of all the Balkan peoples lies in the EU. | |
| This solution goes against the interests of Serbia and Kosovo Albanians, and against the stability of the region Serbian President, Boris Tadic | |
| The pledge to accelerate Serbia's EU candidate status is more controversial. | The pledge to accelerate Serbia's EU candidate status is more controversial. |
| Many argue that the EU needs to encourage reformers in Belgrade as they face snap presidential elections next month, but the Dutch insist that Serbia should first deliver all indicted war criminals to the international court in The Hague. | |
| Serbia's response | |
| In a newspaper interview on Friday, the Serbian President, Boris Tadic, said he would never accept Kosovo's independence. | |
| "This solution goes against the interests of Serbia and Kosovo Albanians, and against the stability of the region," he said. | |
| But he indicated that he was not prepared to move away from the EU if it pushed for Kosovo's independence. | |
| He said the road towards Europe was a better solution than isolation. | |
| Mr Tadic said that those who recommended that Serbia should turn its back on the EU if Kosovan independence came to pass, "go against the vital interests of all our country's citizens and seek to push Serbia towards isolation and economic failure". | |
| He also emphasised that some EU member states were against independence for Kosovo. | |
| Cyprus is the most strongly opposed, but Greece, Slovakia, Spain and Romania have all expressed concern about the possible repercussions for separatist movements elsewhere in Europe. | |
| That resistance is likely to deter EU leaders from making any decision on how to react to a possible declaration of independence, says the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels. | |
| But they will agree that the status quo in Kosovo is unsustainable and the region needs to move towards a settlement. |