Wolfgang Petritsch

Veteran Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch on Thursday said that while he generally opposed territorial changes in principle - in the case of a mutual agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, he would not reject the idea.

"I'm one of the few who, when this idea appeared … did not belong to these people who automatically said 'No'," he told BIRN Kosovo's TV show Jeta ne Kosove.

Austrian Balkans expert and former high representative for Bosnia Wolfgang Petritsch says that "foreign influences in the Western Balkans are overestimated."

According to him, Serbia, as the most important country in the region, "sees its future in the EU." In his statement to APA, Petritsch said that the countries of the Western Balkans "must be evaluated individually."

Photo: mfa.gov.rs

Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch says the accession of the Balkans to the EU is possible in ten years' time.

In the meantime, as he said, cooperation between the countries in the region, where he sees Serbia as a factor of stability, is becoming more and more important.

Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch says the accession of the Balkans to the EU is possible in ten years' time.

In the meantime, as he said, cooperation between the countries in the region, where he sees Serbia as a factor of stability, is becoming more and more important.

The decision of the Kosovo Constitutional Court regarding the Community of Serb Municipalities "is not good" says Wolfgang Petritsch.

The president of the Austrian Marshall Plan said this was the case "because it is important that the responsibilities undertaken are respected."

The former Croatian President on Friday is to propose a new Dayton-style agreement on Bosnia in Mostar, where he is due to deliver a speech.

Mesic's proposal involves Croatia initiating the main changes to the 1995 Dayton Ohio deal, which ended Bosnia's 1992-5 war.