The EU will on Tuesday officially unveil its enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans, which has been speculated about for days.
It will be heard today whether any dates will be mentioned.
Madrid's concerns regarding the EU integration of the Western Balkans will soon be in front of EU leaders, Vecernje Novosti daily reports.
The European Council will also consider a new enlargement strategy.
The remarks of Spain, which strongly opposes to any kind of indication of statehood in reference to Kosovo on its European path, are likely to shortly find themselves before the heads of state and government of the European Union, the daily said it learned.
Spain strongly support European integration of Serbia, and when it comes to the stance on Kosovo, it is crystal clear based on what was presented in the non-paper, Tanjug news agency was told by the Embassy of Spain in Belgrade.
In general this is the replay to Tanjug’s question sent to the Embassy to comment on Spanish non-paper related to Kosovo and EU strategy, as well as on Serbia’s European integration, Tanjug reported.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, considers the decision of the Spanish Government to exclude Kosovo from the EU enlargement process as logical, adding that according to the European Parliament President, Antonio Tajani, legally binding agreement with Kosovo “does not include recognition,” Tanjug news agency reported.
“There are proposals that our disputes with Albanians are resolved prior to that, I think it is not good to maintain frozen conflict and to leave this issue to our children,” Vucic said, Tanjug reported.
Madrid is not backing down on blocking the EU integration of Kosovo, the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti writes on Thursday.
However, the article continues, Spain will agree to Kosovo in the EU - but only as a region of Serbia.
The position of Madrid, Vecernje Novosti said it learned, is that Kosovo can become a part of the Union only as a separate administration within Serbia. In this sense, the Spanish have sent to top EU officials not only one written objection - as mentioned over the previous days - but several protest documents.
Chairperson of the Serbian Assembly Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun told Tanjug news agency Spain insists on stance of non-recognizing Kosovo.
Commenting on a non-paper, Spain has sent to the European Commission, saying that Kosovo is not a part of the Western Balkans enlargement process, Drecun said Spain does not accept stance that Serbia is blackmailed.
“In fact Spain insists on stance of non-recognizing self-declared state of Kosovo and does not want to allow that it goes out of a status-neutral framework in any format.
Spain has submitted a letter in the form of a non-paper ahead of the adoption of EU's enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans.
According to reports, the goal of the document is to block Kosovo.
By: Chema Arraiza
Catalonia’s recent declaration of independence has prompted many to draw comparisons with events in Kosovo – but closer analysis shows the two cases are very different.
The Spanish government has taken direct control of Catalonia in the past few days in order to quell its bid for independence.
The United Pensioners' Party (PUPS) has proposed that Spain be included, within the team of EU mediators, in the Brussels dialogue of Belgrade and Pristina, Serbian media reported.
In a statement reported by Beta today, the party, which participates in Serbia's government coalition, suggested proposing to the state leadership to extend "the same diplomatic and friendly invitation" to other EU members that do not recognize Kosovo as independent - i.e., Slovakia, Romania, Cyprus, and Greece.
Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia takes the side of Spain, and that despite important differences in declarations of independence of Catalonia and Kosovo, Serbia has to face reality and look into future, FoNet news agency reported.
Vucic also said Kosovo is twice worse case than Catalonia.