Serbia to Start EU Entry Talks in January

Serbia on Tuesday won the European Union's blessing to kick off talks on joining the bloc on January 21 in recognition of its efforts in normalizing ties with Kosovo.

European affairs ministers set the date after having "acknowledged reform and normalization efforts" by the Balkan nation, the bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said.

Serbia hopes to become the 29th member of the bloc, following in the footsteps of neighbor Croatia, the newest EU member who joined in July.

Serbia has long sought to prize open the EU door but European leaders were insistent that Belgrade patch up ties with breakaway Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence in 2008.

Serbia, along with several EU states, does not recognize Kosovo's independence, but under an EU-brokered Belgrade-Pristina deal in April, agreed on ways of easing the tension.

"The two sides have implemented substantially all the elements in the April Agreement," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a report to EU nations on Monday.

Opening EU entry talks with Serbia next month and continuing work to seal an EU accord with Kosovo "will provide the two sides with the necessary encouragement to continue on the path towards full normalization," Ashton said in the document.

The ministers on Tuesday also recognized "significant progress" by Albania's government in seeking to meet EU standards on rights and democracy and said a bid by Tirana to win EU candidate status -- the first step towards membership talks -- would be considered in June.

The latest hurdle overcome by Serbia in its drive to join the EU was a local November ballot in northern Kosovo, a longtime trouble-spot due to a Serb majority living in that region. The poll had to be re-run in early December due to tension.

About 120,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo, whose 1.8-million-strong population is mainly Albanian.

But 40,000 ethnic Serbs, who have recognized neither Kosovo's independence nor the authorities in Pristina since the end of the 1998-1999 war, inhabit the north.