"Kosovo's integrity" unacceptable for Serbia

Source: Večernje novosti

BELGRADE -- Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić told daily Večernje novosti that the EU had no alternative for Serbia.

Tomislav Nikolić (Tanjug, file)

He stressed, however, that he expected Brussels to show true readiness to accept Serbia in the Union.
According to him, Belgrade also expects the European Commission (EC) to rephrase a sentence on “Kosovo’s territorial integrity” mentioned in a document dubbed Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2012-2013.

“Serbia has started dealing with the burning issues in its wish to get a date for the beginning of the (EU accession) negotiations, including combat against corruption and crime, judicial reforms and acceptance of everything that has been signed so far, with continuation of the technical talks, and showed that it has a strong will to solve the problem,” Nikolić told the daily.

He expects the EU to show a true readiness to accept Serbia in the EU as a full-fledged member.

“The EU is positive about Kosovo and Metohija’s independence through formulations in the Enlargement Strategy. Phrasing ‘Kosovo’s integrity’ is not acceptable for Serbia who expects the EU to be an unbiased mediator in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue. A change of the formulation represents a small step that would give Serbia an additional strength to solve all existing problems in good will and interest of all citizens and continue the dialogue on the highest possible political level,” the president was quoted as saying.

He noted that the EU should be committed to the international law and the UN Charter.

“A secession of a part of Serbia, a UN founder, should not be acceptable for the EU and it should also not be unacceptable for them that Serbia does not want a part of its territory to get attributes of a state in the Enlargement Strategy, which is contrary to international documents and customs,” Nikolić explained.

The daily has learnt that Serbia’s proposal is to erase the controversial formulation “respect of Kosovo’s territorial integrity” from the document and replace it with “respect of Kosovo’s territory”.

“In that case, Serbia could respect the wholeness of its southern province which would mean that it accepts that there is no partition,” Nikolić said.

Serbian Deputy PM for European Integration Suzana Grubješić told Večernje novosti that the controversial formulation had been added to the document “at the last moment”.

“This was done without previous consultations with any Serbian official,” she said and added that the government would soon discuss further steps.