EU must not tolerate Serbian blockade of Kosovo: minister

(VIENNA) - Serbia is carrying out a trade blockade on Kosovo, Kosovo's finance and economy minister complained Friday, urging the European Union and the international community not to tolerate this.

"Serbs and Bosnians block goods that are produced in Kosovo. That's very bad: that's a blockade, that's a trade war. And we haven't reacted to it," Minister Ahmet Shala told the Austria Press Agency in an interview published Friday.

"We allow Serbian products into Kosovo, without barriers, to show the international community and the Serbs that we don't believe such behaviour will help us mutually."

"They don't recognise our customs stamps, even though these stamps are accepted by all European Union members, even those who don't recognise us," he added.

Shala said the international community and the European Union should not tolerate this, especially given the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest court, which found in July that Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence did not violate international law.

Serbia still refuses to recognise its former province's autonomy.

But even this should not endanger Kosovo's chances of joining the European Union, Shala said.

"It would help Serbia to recognise Kosovo, but if they still can't bring themselves to do that, European integration should not be linked with recognition (of Kosovo's independence)," the minister said.

Instead, the two states should simply agree not to block each other's accession process.

This also applied to five EU members -- Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain -- who still refuse to recognise Kosovo, either in solidarity with Serbia or to avoid creating a precedent for separatist movements in their countries.

These countries should take a closer look at Kosovo and realise that there is "no analogy" between the former Serbian province and their internal disputes, Shala insisted.