LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union reiterated its backing for a UN plan for independence for the breakaway Serb province of Kosovo yesterday and called for stepped-up efforts for a rapid solution via a UN resolution. EU officials said the stance of EU foreign ministers who met in Luxembourg represented a holding position ahead of a July 1 meeting between US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are poles apart on the issue. A statement from the Council of 27 EU member states said they had confirmed their support for the plan drawn up by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, which is bitterly opposed by Serbia and its Russian ally. “The Council expressed its support for intensified efforts to ensure that the Security Council can adopt such a resolution in a timely manner... the Council underlined the necessity of rapidly finding a solution...,” the statement said. EU diplomats said the statement was a trade-off between those who wanted a quick Security Council resolution and those that wanted more time.

ZAGREB (AFP) – The war crimes trial of two former Croatian generals opened in Zagreb yesterday, marking an important test of the Balkan country’s suitability for eventual EU membership. The trial of Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, who are accused of allowing their forces to torture and kill Serb civilians during a 1993 military operation, was the first to be transferred to Croatia from the UN war crimes court in The Hague. The defendants, wearing dark suits and sitting calmly in the courtroom, pleaded not guilty after prosecutors read out their indictment. The case is seen as an important gauge of the country’s judiciary as it bids for membership of the EU, which it hopes to join by the end of the decade.

The Netherlands has registered a large influx of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals since the two countries joined the EU in January, the Dutch statistics agency CBS said yesterday. “In the first four months of 2007, 2,800 Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants registered in one of the country’s counties, well above twice the registration number recorded for all of 2006,” CBS said in a statement. Some 1,900 Bulgarians and 900 Romanians have registered since the beginning of the year, up from a total of 1,250 immigrants from both countries recorded in 2006, CBS said, adding that around 60 percent of the newcomers were women. (AFP)

Four men convicted in Bosnia in January of plotting to blow up an unidentified European target have had their prison sentences sharply reduced, the State Court said yesterday. Prosecutors said the four men – two Bosnians, a Swede and a Turk – had been preparing to launch a terror attack against a European country to force the pullout of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The target of the plot remains unclear. The State Court’s appeals panel took into account the defendants’ ages and their lack of a criminal record. (AP)