Serbia rejects EU membership over Kosovo

BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Serbian legislators overwhelmingly voted to reject European Union and NATO membership if the breakaway Kosovo province declares independence.

The Serbian National Assembly, on a 220-14 vote late Wednesday, approved a resolution banning the government from signing any treaty that doesn't respect Serbia's territorial integrity and sovereignty over the predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, Belgrade media reported Thursday.

The resolution declared Serbia's military neutrality and said Belgrade would reconsider diplomatic relations with Western countries that recognize Kosovo as an independent state, the Serbian news agency Beta said.

Kosovo, formally a province in Serbia, has been U.N.-governed since 1999, when NATO troops were deployed to curb ethnic conflicts.

The resolution is opposing a EU decision earlier this month to send a civilian and police mission to Kosovo to replace the current U.N. mission.

After Serbian-Kosovo Albanian talks failed, the U.N. Security Council recently passed the lead to the EU in trying to resolve Kosovo's future status.

Leaders of ethnic-Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million population, insist on independence from Serbia, while the Belgrade government wants to keep Kosovo as Serbia's autonomous province.