No dialogue until Pristina withdraws trade barriers – Vucic (Tanjug, B92)
Aleksandar Vucic said late on Monday that he is listening “on a daily basis to the wishes of westerners for Serbia to continue the dialogue with Kosovo."
Vucic reiterated that there will be no continuation of the dialogue until Pristina withdraws its measures, referring to an additional tax of 10 percent that Pritina has imposed on goods from central Serbia and from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We are ready to talk at any moment. But how to talk when someone after 12 years (since the signing of the regional free trade CEFTA agreement) will not implement something they signed. From where should trust be draw that they will not trample on any other agreement," Vucic told Happy TV.
Asked about an "indecent proposal" - that Serbia should continue its dialogue with Pristina, and in turn to get the opening of new EU accession negotiations chapters, about which some media reported, Vucic said that he listens on a daily basis to the wishes of the Western world to resume the talks, notwithstanding that Pristina will not withdraw its measures.
"I made the decision not to talk until they have withdrawn their measures. I said it publicly in Brussels: Every day I am under some sort of - I cannot call it pressure, because that's the job I'm doing," he said.
Reacting to some referring to it as "the stick and carrot" policy, Vucic said:
"I'm way too old to eat carrots, to be honest, there is a line somewhere, a line that means someone has to respect the rules and standards they have signed, the agreements they have signed. I knew, from the beginning, I said that we would stick to the Brussels agreement, and the Albanians would not. I knew that they would not go into the formation of the ZSO (Community of Serb Municipalities)," he said.
Vucic said that nobody is pressuring Pristina, because, "if that pressure existed, "they would implement everything the same second."