Serbia would not agree to the deployment of a European Union mission (EULEX) in Kosovo before it got solid guarantees that its conditions for the reconfiguration of the international presence in Kosovo had been fully taken into account, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Sunday.
"We are only in the stage in which our preconditions for the deployment of EULEX are accepted in the statements and formulations of ranking EU officials. However, before we get guarantees on paper, no agreement can be made," Tadic told the official Tanjug news agency in an interview.
Tadic said that Serbia was negotiating the reconfiguration of the civilian presence in Kosovo only with the United Nations and these negotiations had not been finished regarding three preconditions for the deployment of EULEX.
According to Serbian officials, the three preconditions are as follows: the deployment of EULEX must be approved by the UN Security Council; the mission would remain neutral regarding Kosovo's status; the mission has nothing to do with the plan of the UN envoy on Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari who defined Kosovo's status as internationally supervised independence.
The European Commission's Western Balkans Director Pierre Mirel said in Belgrade on Friday that the European Union has agreed to Serbia's conditions for the deployment of the EULEX in Kosovo.
However, EU special envoy for Kosovo Pieter Feith said on Saturday that the statement by Mirel on EULEX mission was not the official position of the European Union.
"Comments that are attributed to the European Commission official are not the EU's official position," Feith said in a statement issued in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
Kosovo, the breakaway province of Serbia and with an ethnic Albanian-majority, unilaterally declared independence on Feb. 17 following almost nine years of UN administration. It has since gained recognition by 52 countries, including the United States and most EU member states, but Serbia and its staunch ally Russia vehemently opposed.
The EULEX mission will consist of 2,000 police officers, judges and customs officers in charge of enforcing laws in Kosovo.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said Friday after the meeting with Mirel that a solution "must be agreed on in New York" and that he hoped a solution acceptable to all would be found before a UN Security Council session scheduled for Nov. 11.