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Serbian and Kosovar officials are expected to set aside their differences next week by taking part in a conference organised by the European Union in Sarajevo, diplomats in Brussels said Friday, DPA reported.
The event, on June 2, would make up for the failure of a previous EU-Balkan top level meeting in March, which was boycotted by Serbian President Boris Tadic.
"The conference is going to be a success just on the basis of having managed to have everybody present," an EU diplomat told the German Press Agency dpa.
He said that despite the fact no breakthroughs were expected, the event would "crucial" to reassure Western Balkan nations they had not been forgotten as a result of the recent eurozone crisis.
A final declaration was expected to reaffirm the EU's commitment to integrate all of the region as soon as it completed necessary reforms, the diplomat said.
The document would also mention the European Commission's recent offer of visa-free travel for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania, still to be endorsed by EU governments, another EU diplomat added.
In an intricate piece of diplomacy, an EU offer to use the so- called "Gymnich" protocol, meaning that participants to the Sarajevo conference are to be represented only by their name, without any official reference to their country, was enough to convince Serbia not to repeat its boycott.
Kosovo's delegation was also expected to be flanked by the United Nations' top official in Pristina, Lamberto Zannier, who countries which do not recognise Kosovo still see as the highest authority in the former Serbian province.
Belgrade official policy is to stay away from events where Kosovo is represented at state level, since it does not accept the unilateral secession Pristina declared in early 2008.
The EU is expected to be represented at the highest level in Sarajevo, with foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele both scheduled to attend.
Ashton stayed away from the previous EU-Balkans talks in March, while Fuele left halfway the proceedings.
Proceedings are to be chaired by Spanish foreign minister Migel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
Germany is the only major EU power not expected to send its foreign minister, while those from France, Britain and Italy have confirmed their attendance.
Turkey - an increasingly assertive power in the Balkans - is expected to send its top diplomat Ahmet Davutoglu.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen were also invited, but are set to be represented by deputies.
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