Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister and first deputy PM Ivica Dacic is cautious while commenting on EU Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn’s statement about the possibility of “a land swap” as part of a future Belgrade-Pristina agreement.
Dacic told Belgrade-based daily Blic that Pristina – who last November introduced 100 percent tariffs on goods from central Serbia, deadlocking the Kosovo dialogue – should make the first move.
“Let them solve the tariffs issue first, then let’s see what happens. Let’s wait and see what will happen in Berlin on April 29,” Dacic said, referring to a meeting between Serbian and Albanian leaders organized by Germany and France.
In an interview for the Washington Post published earlier in the week, Johannes Hahn, EU commissioner in charge of neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, said that “a possible land swap might be a final parcel in a bigger picture.”
“The only precondition we have raised was that any kind of bilateral agreement has to contribute to more peace and stability in the region,” he said of EU’s position.
Speaking about “the possible border adjustment” Hahn “stressed that a legally binding agreement between the two would cover areas beyond the border issue and that ‘one fundamental element in a future agreement must be the respect of minority rights’,” the Washington Post reported.
