EU officials have reacted to the vote in Serbia stressing that pro-Western parties were in the majority and are likely form a government. But there is little doubt they would have preferred a better result for the Democratic Party, the party most likely to be cool-headed over an imminent decision on the future of Kosovo.

The German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier was upbeat. He said “it was important to stress that the result in Serbia’s election was one in which democratic forces have probably emerged as the strongest.” The result, however, has cast a shadow over EU hopes for a strong Belgrade government that could make a rapid decision on Kosovo and resume Serbia’s frozen EU membership bid by arresting war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

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