Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's initiative for establishing a joint remembrance day for all victims of the wars of the 1990s "is a great step forward."

It is very unfortunate that "it has not been met with approval in Croatia and Kosovo," said Franco Frattini, Italy's former foreign minister and former senior official of the European Commission.

"Who could deny that all the victims of the wars in the former Yugoslavia deserve respect and compassion?" Frattini said in a statement to Tanjug.

The Italian politician, who is also president of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI), notes that the Serbian prime minister has already taken important initiatives aimed at reconciliation in the region, such as going to Srebrenica or inviting the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Belgrade.

According to Frattini, the idea of regional reconciliation, which is at the core of the Serbian prime minister's initiative, is and will be much stronger than any propaganda or nationalistic rhetoric.

"Reconciliation needs visionary leaders, and I am optimistic, results will come," Frattini said.