Serbia Says 'No New Requirements' on Kosovo

The bloc will not require that the country reach "any particular outcome" in the forthcoming Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, Djelic said.

"No additional requirements will be set down regarding Kosovo, and also no concrete results imposed," Djelic told the state broadcaster RTS in Belgrade late on Thursday.

Djelic's comments come several days after the European Parliament rapporteur for Kosovo, Ulrike Lunacek, said that Serbia "must recognise Kosovo" before it joins the EU.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament, EP, voted to approve the Stabilisation and Association Agreement signed between Brussels and Belgrade in the spring of 2008, and adopted a resolution on Serbia's progress.

According to Djelic, the recommendations which the European Parliament gave in the resolution will not affect the forthcoming talks, since the EP is not a body which decides on such matters.

"The EU is not a state and it often happens that the European Parliament votes on something beyond its authority. The body can have an opinion, but the decisions about the forthcoming dialogue should be made by EU member countries and Belgrade and Pristina," Djelic stressed.

According to the minister, the adoption by a narrow majority of the "softened" amendments made by Europe's Green Party, which proposed that the status of Kosovo should not be discussed during the dialogue, was an indication that the mood was gradually changing, because for Serbia, when it came to Kosovo, the EP represented the least favorable of European institutions.

Djelic noted that the ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement and the adoption of the resolution on Serbia was an indicator that there was consensus among EU member countries about Serbia's European future.