Belgrade ready for dialogue, EU to pressure more, FM says

NEWS 19.10.201817:04
Tanjug/Zoran Žestić

Serbia’s Foreign Minister said in Vienna on Friday that Belgrade was prepared for a dialogue with Pristina and that he expected the European Union to exercise additional pressure to help the implementation of what was agreed and signed five years ago, the Beta news agency reported.

Ivica Dacic said that relations between Austria, which holds the EU presidnecy, and Serbia were continually improving and thanked Vienna for the support in Belgrade’s efforts to join the EU by insisting on opening more negotiating chapters.

“We don’t have any disputes with Austria, apart from a different opinion on the Kosovo problem,” Dacic said, adding that Serbia was in favour of solving all open regional issues, but that that could only be done if everybody’s interest was respected.

“We believe that it is vital because it was a condition under which we agreed to sign the Brussels Agreement (made between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo on the normalisation of their relations).

„It’s clear that there cannot be any solution without taking everyone’s interest into account,” he said.

Dacic said that Serbia wanted to play an active role, but without the readiness for a compromise and the interest of the Serbs living in Kosovo taken care of, Belgrade would not yield to pressure to solve the Kosovo status based on the unilateral acts Pristina had adopted.

He said that Pristina was continuing bringing unilateral decisions, like the one to transform Security forces into an army which contradicted the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that authorised an international civil and military presence in the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and established the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.