Athens and Rome to support Serbia

ATHENS -- Greece and Italy will in the next European Council meeting jointly support Serbia in order to avoid the country’s isolation.

This was announced after the meeting between the prime ministers of Greece and Italy Kostas Karamanlis and Romano Prodi in Athens today.

”We share a common concern for the current Kosovo situation, that could cause tensions in the relations with Serbia”, Prodi said after the meeting.

Prodi announced that he had written a letter to his European partners to strengthen their political and economic relations with Serbia because “it is part of Europe”.

“We will present this joint proposal in favor of Serbia in the next European Council meeting”, he said, without giving any further details.

Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis pointed out that the Serbian case must be viewed in the context of the need not to make any of the countries in the region feel isolated.

Greece has been very pro-Serb since the breakup of Yugoslavia, at least in part because of their common Orthodox heritage, and they have their own reasons to be anti-Albanian (claims on southern Albania, illegal immigrants from Albania in Greece).

Italy has a small problem with illegal immigrants from Albania, and has some long-standing Albanian communities (whose ancestors fled the Turks). Maybe they are worried about Kosovo serving as a precedent which would encourage the Austrians in the South Tyrol to seek to escape from Italian rule (they were handed over to Italy because Italy sided with the Allies in WWI). I don't know if that is a serious concern currently.

I see it as a good cop/bad cop thing with the governments. I believe Italy has said it would back Kosovo independence and Greece has met with Ceku the war criminal (Medak Pocket Croatia), so this is to prevent the nationalists in Serbia gaining power. After all, Europe and the U.S. has been able to exploit Serbia better with the puppet government and buying up the assets/industries at firesale prices. They want to harm Serbia yet have Serbia keep jumping through hoops and wanting to get in the EU, which very well might be more harmful than helpful to Serbia anyways.

"I especially chuckled over the "small problem" with albanian illegals in Italy. You obviously don't read the italian press or know any Italians!"

You are right, Eleni. When I was in Italy last year, our tour director stood up on the bus and said, "There are two types of people for you, as tourists, to worry about. Gypsies will steal your wallet or your purse, but they aren't violent. The Albanians are will steal anything they want and once you give to them, they'll kill you. They are the most violent people on earth and even the Italian Mafia is afraid of them....."

Here's more on Italy & Serbia:

ITALY: SERBIA'S 96 MLN EURO DEBT SCRAPPED

Belgrade, 4 Dec. (AKI) - Italy wrote off a 96 million euros debt to Serbia on Monday and rescheduled another 79 million. The deal was concluded during a one-day visit of Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema who opened a new Italian cultural and business center in Belgrade, the Palazzo Italia. During his visit, D'Alema met prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, president Boris Tadic and foreign minister Vuk Draskovic to discuss bilateral relations and the status of the southern Kosovo province, where majority ethnic Albanians seek independence.

The Italian foreign minister has endorsed some sort of independence for Kosovo. Belgrade opposes independence, though it has no authority in the province which was put under United Nations control in 1999.

A statement from Kostunica's office said the two leaders agreed on Monday that the solution for Kosovo should be reached through negotiations, with respect for the internationally recognized borders and shouldn't be imposed by force.

The debt write off deal is a part of a larger arrangement reached with the Paris Club of creditors in December 2001 to write off a total of three billion dollar debt in order to help economic reforms after democratic forces came to power in October 2000.

Italy is Serbia's third main trading partner, with a total trade turnover expected to top 1.8 billion dollars. D'Alema's visit and the debt write off "represents a confirmation of good relations of the two countries", Kostunica said in a statement. Serbia was invited to join the NATO Partnership for Peace Program at a summit in Riga last week and D'Alema supported the resumption of pre-entry talks with the European Union broken off last May.

D'Alema meanwhile continued his European tour and travelled to Russia on Monday.

Speaking to the press, the Italian minister said he will ask Russian authorities on Tuesday "full cooperation" in the case of the alleged poisoning of a former KGB spy and an Italian intelligence expert.

D'Alema said he would ask Moscow's "full cooperation" over a case which poses "many unanswered questions that need clarification."

On Monday, Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic who was one of the few people to meet late KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko before he fell ill with alleged radiation poisoning, told the Italian media that British doctors found a lethal dose of the radioactive substance polonium 210 in his body.

Scaramella has been under close observation in a London hospital since last week, following the death of Litvinenko from suspected polonium 210 poisoning.

The man was a consultant for an Italian parlamentary inquiry into KGB activity in Italy and had asked the former Soviet spy to meet allegedly to discuss emails in which a Russian source they shared informed him that his life and Litvinenko's were in danger.
(Vpr/Rar/Aki)

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.365754581&par=0#

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.