Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic announced, calling on the EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, that official Belgrade will have to choose between Kosovo and Europe, on the European road.
He called on a national consensus about this dilemma and argued that “he would not take part in the government that would recognize Kosovo’s independence.” At the same time, according to unofficial information, Pristina is planning, with the help of Western friends, to push a new principle of negotiations with Belgrade – “recognition, and then normalization of relations.” Milovan Drecun, MP f the Progressive party and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, argues that those are not topics the Serbian Parliament will deal with.
“We have the Constitution, the Platform and adopted principles for Brussels talks with Pristina. The Belgrade firm position is that recognition of the unilateral independence of Kosovo is unacceptable for us. The EU have not officially made any request, neither such a request is included in the Chapter 35, concerning Kosovo. It refers to the normalization of relations, which takes place in the status-neutral framework. The statement of one official is not the official position of the EU, in which Kosovo is not recognized by five Member States, without which such requirement cannot be set to Belgrade,” says Drecun.
Drecun believes that the opening of the debate in the Parliament of Serbia would “weaken the negotiating position of Belgrade.” Also, he claims that the request “recognition before the normalization of relations” would be “political risk for Pristina, because Belgrade would not accept it, and the US and Brussels want a stable region.”
“The issue of European integration and Kosovo and Metohija should be initiated and I believe not only in the parliament. No one in Serbia has a clue what actually happens and it is a topic for debate. Democratic Party (DS) would like to know all the conditions for Serbia’s EU membership. The problem is that the parliamentary majority does not want such topics on the agenda. The majority in the Assembly acts like they want a one-party parliament. Thanks to the control over the media some people would even believe we are member of the EU, if the Parliament would declare so,” told Borislav Stefanovic, Head of the Parliamentary group of DS.
Rada Trajkovic believes that it is necessary that the Parliament of Serbia find a solution that would “resume stopped processes – accept the Brussels Agreement, and avoid recognition of Kosovo’s independence.”
“Parliamentary debate is necessary because of the public and due to the fact the negotiations in Brussels were closed to the media. I think President Nikolic is a bit late with presenting obvious truth. Belgrade has already withdrawn all state institutions of Serbia from Kosovo and Metohija, and in such a way admitted some level of independence of Kosovo. At the same time Belgrade did not agreed with the International Community and Pristina in which segments it is ready to accept the institutional separation of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia,” explains Rada Trajkovic from the European Movement of the Serbs in Kosovo.
