Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told Serbian counterparts to look ahead to membership in the European Union, rather than remain mired in the past by taking a stubborn stance on Kosovo.

“Serbs have to decide now between looking towards the past [...] or looking towards the future and the European perspective. I hope and expect the Serbian authorities and public opinion at this very delicate moment will not prepare their people for a way back into the past,” he said late on February 20 2008, after meeting Slovenian counterpart Janez Janša, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported as quoted by Croatian news website Javno.

The major topic of discussion for the two heads of government during Stanishev's one-day visit to Ljubljana was Kosovo's unilateral proclamation of independence, and both agreed  that Serbia should continue seeking EU integration and partnership instead of isolating itself on the Kosovo issue.

Given that most EU member states have either recognised or have said they intended to recognise the new Kosovar republic, Serbia now appears more than unwilling to continue its EU dialogue.

On February 20, Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremić told European Parliament the decision of some of the members of the bloc to recognise Kosovo jeopardised Serbian-EU relations.

The EU offered Serbia a deal on free trade, visa relaxation and educational cooperation last month, as a step to foster closer cooperation and soften the blow of impending Kosovo independence. However, Belgrade rejected the agreement, seeing the deal as EU's attempt to buy Kosovo's independence.

Prime minister Janša said his government would “most probably” propose to Slovenian parliament to recognise Kosovo on February 21. It was up to Belgrade to decide how the EU-Serbia relations would develop since the EU deal offer was still valid, he added.

Slovenia was the first country to secede from Yugoslavia after the fall of communism and waged a brief independence war against the federal government. In January, it also became the first country to join the EU during the eastward expansion in 2004 to assume the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc.