Ivica Dacic says it is “nothing new” that Serbia faces new and more difficult conditions every time it meets “a major requirement in moving closer to the EU.”
But the Serbian foreign minister also said on Wednesday he was misquoted in the media who published his alleged statement that ‘even if we recognized Kosovo, we would not be accepted to the EU’.”
He “explained what he said in his interview with the Russian website Sputnik, and what the media singled out from it as the main news.”
Dacic said he was asked to comment on President Tomislav Nikolic’s statement that Serbia would “join the EU in a month if it recognized Kosovo,” and that his reply was, “It would not, because there will always be some new conditions.”
“Wait – I answered the question about ‘whether it (Serbia) would enter (the EU) in a month’,” he stressed.
Dacic does not deny that the country is facing new conditions, which he refers to as ” moving targets.” He wondered “why there is now a story about 11 points established by the German parliament when it was agreed with Serbia that the opening of chapters required implementation of the Brussels agreement.”
“I signed the Brussels agreement. What do the bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica and Peace Park have to do with the Brussels agreement? In what way, then, is the condition for the opening of chapters implementation of the Brussels agreement? It is not! Then, say the Brussels agreement is not the only condition, but also the additional points, such and such. That’s the honest relationship that Serbia seeks. I have the right to say this because I am the minister of foreign affairs of Serbia and not EU’s proxy,” Dacic said.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integrations Aleksandar Senic, who comes from the opposition SDS party, commented to say that “there are no additional conditions that Dacic is talking about,” and that Serbia “should stick to its European path.”
“I think there are no new conditions. I suppose that giving such statements represents sitting on two chairs so that when both are taken from under us, there will be somebody else to blame,” said Senic.
Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun, from the ruling SNS, believes that “Serbia in the EU” is the interest of the West and its main pillar in the Balkans, but does not exclude the possibility of additional pressure.
“In this sense, there is a limit to which Serbia can accept demands. Over this limit our vital national and state interests are directly endangered. No serious government can go against itself,” said Drecun.
Regardless of the adding of new conditions which, according to Dacic, “are not fair to our country,” he said that “EU membership is in Serbia’s interest.”
