BELGRADE, Serbia -- The influential Serbian Orthodox Church appealed Saturday against a deal with Kosovo Albanians that would pave the way for Serbia's European Union membership.
The EU has given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish the control of northern of Kosovo - one of the most difficult issues dividing the former Serbian province - in exchange for the start of Serbia's EU membership negotiations.
Talks between Serbian and Kosovo officials on the issue broke down last week in Brussels and Serbian leaders have since been debating whether to accept or reject the deal which they describe as "catastrophic" and unfair.
Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej said in a letter addressed to Serbian leaders that they shouldn't "give up, sell or betray" Kosovo for a "murky" EU membership promise.
Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, is considered by nationalists to be the cradle of Serbian medieval statehood and religion. It has been recognized by more than 90 countries including the U.S. and 22 of the EU's 27 members. But because of a blockade by Serbian allies Russia and China in the Security Council, Kosovo is not a U.N. member.
Serbia relinquished the control of most of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO chased its troops out of the region after a three-month bombing campaign. Ending the partition of Kosovo between the Albanian majority and the Serb-controlled north - about a fifth of the country - is a key condition of Serbia's further progress toward EU membership.
The Serbian church leader said that the country's political leadership "has no mandate to accept the conditions that have never been rendered to any other EU candidate country."
"The price is too high," Irinej said. "Serbia should not accept to pay that price for goods that may never be delivered."
Serbian officials said they would on Monday decide whether to accept or reject the deal.
• Read more articles by DUSAN STOJANOVIC
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.