Serbia's Prime Minister has given a cool response to leaks of the President's platform on Kosovo, which has not been revealed in entirety but, according to the daily newspaper Politika, TV B92 and some other media, offers Kosovo only the status of a province within Serbia.

The offer is clearly unacceptable to Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, as well as to the many Western countries, including the US, which recognised it as an inde

Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told German daily Die Welt that Belgrade has made progress in the dialogue with Pristina and that it has carried out painful reforms, adding he hopes that chapters in Serbia's EU accession talks will be opened soon.

"Serbia worked very hard on that. We have advanced in the dialogue with Pristina; we have carried out painful reforms and initiated austerity measures. Belgrade has done that without pressure from outside," he said.

Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic today stated that visit of the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić to Brussels and Berlin is important because Kosovo and Metohija, and relation with Pristina, is the number one political issue in relations between the EU and Serbia.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic is creating serious problems for the Serbian Government with his platform for Kosovo, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told representatives of nongovernmental organizations, adding that he learned about the content of the document from the media, Blic reports on Monday.

Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Veljko Odalovic has stated that it was important for Serbia and Albania to devote to the recent events in Kumanovo, FYROM and that these two countries could be a pillar of stability in the region.

Odalovic told the RTS that the visit takes place at a delicate moment, but it would be important that Serbia and Albania deal primarily with the events in Kumanovo.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that he was confident that Serbia would open the first chapters in its EU accession negotiations before the end of the current year.

“I hope and expect that it will happen in September, but I have still not lost hope that we can get the first chapters even earlier. These could be Chapters 23 and 24, concerning the rule of law, 32, which concerns financial control, and Serbia-specific 35 (on Kosovo)," Vucic said for Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) after a ‘Friends of Serbia’ meeting in Brussels.

Even if the citizens of Serbia would decidein referendum to possibly change the preamble of the Constitution the territorial integrity of country would not be jeopardized, claim the members of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). However, they explained that change of the preamble is not a priority in the upcoming comprehensive reform of the political system.

 A year into office, Aleksandar Vucic says ‘no turning back’ on EU membership bid

BELGRADE— Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s 45-year-old prime minister, has a reputation for combining brawn with brains.

A law student as the former Yugoslavia began to unravel a quarter century ago, Mr. Vucic, then a fervent Serb nationalist, studied hard during the week, notching up top scores in school. On weekends, he would follow his beloved soccer team, Red Star Belgrade, across the country, brawling with fans from top Croatian, Bosnian and other non-Serb teams.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that the EU should say why no negotiating chapters in Serbia's membership negotiations have yet been opened.

Ahead of his meeting with visiting EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Vucic said they will discuss "what Serbia has done so far," and added he "noticed everything is a matter of the dialogue with Pristina."

The prime minister stressed that he and Hahn will discuss "the concrete reasons why chapters have not been opened," and added this was "certainly not because of the Brussels agreement":

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic hopes that EU countries will recognize the efforts Serbia is investing in the dialogue with Pristina.

He made this statement in Belgrade on Wednesday as he received Gianni Pittella, president of the group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (EP).

According to the Serbian government, the prime minister "also expressed the hope that EU countries would also recognize other political and economic reform processes and back Serbia's progress on its EU path by opening negotiating chapters."