Serbian Albanians Place Their Faith in EU Membership

As some Serbian and Kosovo politicians mull swapping territories between the two countries, members of the the ethnic Albanian minority in southern Serbia say they would rather see both countries inside the EU.

"This is not something new. This is a story that circles both in southern Serbia and Kosovo," Nedzad Beljulji, the owner of TV Spectra in Bujanovac, in southern Serbia, said.

"The dream of all Albanians is to live in one state, as is the dream of all Serbs," he added. "But reality and wishes are something different."

The speaker of Kosovo's parliament, Kadri Veseli, recently said Serbia and Kosovo would be better off if Kosovo obtained those parts of southern Serbia, the so-called Presheva Valley, where Albanians are the majority.

"We are open to the option of joining that part [of Serbia] to Kosovo. It is normal that we are interested in that part joining the Republic of Kosovo," Veseli told T7 television on March 22, according to Serbia's Tanjug news agency.

The Presheva Valley comprises the municipalities of Bujanovac and Presevo. Albanians are the majority population in both towns.

Some Serbian politicians have talked of adding ethnic Serbian parts of northern Kosovo to Serbia.

Veseli added that Serbia and Kosovo are now engaged in dialogue, and that the time of armed conflict was over.

However, the head of the Serbian government's Kosovo office, Marko Djuric, called the speaker's remarks about the Presheva Valley a "war threat".

"Kosovo and Metohija will never be a state, nor will Presevo, Medvedja, or Nis, ever be part of the so-called Republic of Kosovo, but Pristina is and will remain part of Serbia, and he [Veselji] will be a Serbian citizen," Djuric's office said in a...