The Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, Thursday approved a one-year extension of the country's military presence in Kosovo as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in the Serbian province KOSOVO. Speakers from the government and main opposition parties said the status of Kosovo needed to be decided soon and spoke out against a unilateral declaration of independence by the predominantly Albanian-populated province, according to a report of the German International Broadcaster DW (Deutsche Welle). The Bundeswehr's (Federal Defense Force) 2,200-strong German contingent is the biggest component in the Kosovo Force (KFOR), which has a total of 16,000 troops deployed in the breakaway Serb province. German Government allocated € 154 million to fund the Bundeswehr' in Kosovo. A new draft circulated Wednesday by US, Great Britain and France, proposed a 120-day delay for a new round of talks between Belgrade, representing Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, and Pristina, representing the Albanians, who makeup 90 percent of the population and want independence quickly. Serbia, however, rejected the draft because it envisaged independence for Kosovo after the proposed period in case of the almost certain failure of the talks. Belgrade has received support from Russia, a veto power nation in the UN Security Council, in retaining sovereignty over Kosovo. Deutsche Welle spoke to Bundestag representative Rainer Stinner, a member of the free-market liberal FDP opposition party, just before the vote about the current situation and why Germany needs to push for a unified EU response in Kosovo.
