Serbia Rejects German-French Settlement Plan for Kosovo

BELGRADE (Sputnik) - Serbia has rejected a peaceful settlement plan on Kosovo and Metohija proposed by France and Germany as it implies that the breakaway province will become a UN member without a formal recognition by Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday.

"Its starting point is that the independence of Kosovo is already a done deal, but we do not accept that," Dacic told the Vecernje novosti newspaper.

The initiative suggested that Belgrade would get a fast-track to EU membership in exchange for Kosovo's accession to the UN, the report said.

"The conclusion of National Security Council is that this proposal is unacceptable for us and we all voted 'yes' for this conclusion… And while recognizing it or not in a formal sense, agreeing that Kosovo is a member of the UN is very difficult for us," the foreign minister said.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristine flared up in August. The Kosovar authorities have required that local Serbs re-register their car plates, demanding that they feature the EU-standard letter code of RKS (Republic of Kosovo) instead of KM, the Serbian identifier for the disputed region of Kosovska Mitrovica on the border. The deadline for the re-registration was pushed to October 31.

On Saturday, representatives of the Kosovo Serbs decided to pull out of all structures of the self-proclaimed Kosovar authorities — including the parliament, government, courts and police — due to Pristina's decision to remove the Serbian police chief for refusing to issue written warnings to local Serbs regarding car plates. Later, Kosovo Serbs scheduled a demonstration on November 6 in the North Kosovska Mitrovica municipality.