Professor of Political Sciences in Belgrade, Predrag Simic, said today that the German plan for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina and the continuation of EU integration for Belgrade implies Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations.
– If for Germany the model for Kosovo is the agreement of two German states from the sixties and seventies, it does not imply formal recognition but involves the normalization of relations in all areas, meaning and membership (Kosovo) in the UN – Simic told Beta news agency.
Vecernje Novosti wrote that Germany has sent 11 new conditions for Serbia to continue negotiations with the EU, which Belgrade hardly can fulfil.
The newspapers added that these are conditions that interfere with the status of Kosovo, namely the adoption of the Statute of the Community of Serbian municipalities in accordance with the laws of Pristina, Pristina’s participation in all regional forums, acceptance of Kosovo passports at the border with Serbia, construction of brick buildings at the administrative crossings.
Simic said that what the President Tomislav Nikolic said that the EU will ask Serbia to recognize Kosovo prior to entry into the Union can have a connection to the new conditions for the start of EU negotiations with Serbia.
Nikolic said recently that he heard for the first time from the European Commissioner Johannes Hahn that the recognition of Kosovo is a condition for joining the EU. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that it cannot be a formal requirement because even five of the 28 EU member states do not recognize Kosovo.
– Motive (for the statement of Nikolic) we can seek in today’s release… conditionally speaking in the 11 new requirements that arrive from Berlin as a condition for the opening of the first negotiations with the EU, which relate to the continuation of the Brussels process (negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina) – Simic said.
He added that the statement of President Nikolic may have to do with the abandonment of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline, which was supposed to pass through Serbia.
– After the withdrawal of the South Stream, Serbia’s position has worsened and we have to admit it. At the same moment arrives and news about the new conditions and this will cause an earthquake on the Serbian political scene and the authorities in Belgrade will face another major challenge that will be difficult to answer – Simic said.
According to him, in political circles in Belgrade there is “no much mood for going beyond what it has been already achieved in the Brussels negotiations.”
– It is a question that will once more divide the government and the opposition, and perhaps the very power – whether continuation of the Brussels process implies de facto, if not de jure, recognition of Kosovo – said Simic.
