PM wants EU "to stop moving target on Kosovo"

Source: AFP, Tanjug

LONDON -- PM Ivica Dačić has urged EU countries "to stop setting new conditions on the issue of Kosovo," as Serbia is expected to officially open its membership talks.

(Tanjug, file)

Dačić complained in an interview for AFP that "you never know where the finish line is" in membership negotiations with Brussels.
"We don't ask for any privileges; the only thing that we ask for is not to introduce new criteria on top of the criteria and benchmarks that have already been set," he told the French news agency.

"We are constantly facing this problem of moving targets - you never know where your finish line is," he said, blaming "some member states" for introducing new requirements.

Dačić stressed that delegates attending a forum in London on Tuesday aimed at attracting foreign investments "would be looking for Serbia to join the European Union as a prerequisite," and said that "the most important thing in our negotiations on EU membership is not going to be an internal issue, but Kosovo."

"For this reason we need to always keep in mind that we should work on the normalization of relations (with Priština) and also on the implementation of agreements that were reached in Brussels."

He also "urged" Serbs in Kosovo to vote in local elections on Sunday -"in the face of a campaign of opposition from many Serbs there who vehemently reject the territory's self-proclaimed independence."

"They should go and vote at these elections, not to help and assist Priština but to elect the authorities which are going to be legal and legitimate and which would be recognized by Belgrade, Priština and Brussels as well," Dačić was quoted as saying.