The EU has encouraged Serbia to intensify implementation of reforms in key areas such as the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime, and freedom of expression and the media, and also expects Belgrade to further normalise its ties with Pristina and align its foreign policy with the EU.
Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić says that Serbia is committed to peace and stability in the region and stability in BiH, and adds that everybody should start searching for common interest.
Stating that Serbia did not support the referendum in the Republika Srpska, at the meeting of parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, Dačić said that Serbia, as a country which is a guarantor of the Dayton Agreement, will respond to any threat while being able to protect itself and its interests.
The news website reports on the third day of the new round of talks between the Kosovo and Serbian delegations brokered by the European Union in Brussels. Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told Indeksonline that the Kosovo delegation has a firm position on the issue of the telephone code. “Talks on the telephone code are continuing. Our position is firm. Serbia needs to send a letter to the ITU agreeing that Kosovo should get its telephone code from the ITU,” Tahiri said.
If the situation deteriorates in Syria, Afghanistan, and if Turkey decides, depending on the outcome of negotiations with the European Union, to direct refugees to Europe, which are stationed in this country, in late October, Serbia could face a new big wave of migrants that would arrive through so far little used route - through Kosovo.
BERLIN — Metternich, the godfather of pan-European statecraft, once famously quipped that the Balkans started just beyond Vienna’s ramparts.
In the emerging EU of 27, the Balkans are everywhere.
The European Union could always be neatly divided into regional blocs that, for the most part, pursued a common agenda, whether the northern group around Germany or the southern “Club Med” countries led by France.
From the refugee crisis to security threats, Europe’s biggest challenges pass through the Western Balkans. But officials worry that Brexit will see the EU turn inwards just as Russia’s influence in the region is on the rise.
The head of the European Union Office in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, has invited the political leaders in Kosovo to overcome their differences and work together for Kosovo’s future towards the EU. “I call on political leaders to overcome their differences and work together for the future of Kosovo in the EU. We want to see democracy in Kosovo. We want progress, but also rule of law and fighting corruption and organized crime. Rule of law is the biggest challenge for Kosovo currently.
Serbia will never accept Kosovo-Metohija's independence, and it meets the conditions for EU accession as long as recognition of Kosovo is not required, Serbian presidential adviser Stanislava Pak said in a comment on a statement by German Foreign Office official Michael Roth, who said that, before Serbia's EU accession, everything must be clear regarding Kosovo.
After meeting the most senior authorities at the EU in Brussels, Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj is visiting today Strasbourg where he met with Euro-deputies of different political parties and powerful parliamentary groups of the European Parliament.
Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, said today that Kosovo is determined to meet the final criteria for visa liberalisation – the border demarcation with Montenegro. After meeting the newly-appointed head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, Mustafa said that Brussels should pressure Serbia into implementing the agreements reached in the EU-brokered dialogue so far and added that Kosovo remains committed to this process. Apostolova asked Mustafa to brief her on the Kosovo Government’s concrete measures against corruption and nepotism.