Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric held an unscheduled press conference in Belgrade this Thursday.
Djuric reacted to the statements being made by Kosovo officials, above all Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.
Deputy Leader of People’s Party, Nikola Jovanovic assessed today that Serbia needs systematic changes, BETA news agency reported.
Jovanovic added it includes the introduction of lustration, the urgent passing of the law on property origin and the appointment of a special prosecutor for high corruption.
“The main aim of the Alliance for Serbia is to establish a normal society and legal state, in which authorities will not be part of organized crime, bids will not be set in advance, strategic enterprises such as PKB and EPS will not be sold,” Jovanovic said.
EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos and Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic have initialed the agreement on Frontex.
This agreement refers to the activities carried out by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) in Serbia.
Avramopulos said that this would enable Frontex to, in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of Interior, conduct border checks of migrants, thereby increasing the security of EU's external borders.
German Ambassador to Serbia Thomas Schieb once again expressed the view that Germany is concerned and sceptical about the idea of exchanging territories, because that solution, as he said, could create even bigger problems in the medium and long term, Belgrade based daily Blic reports.
EU Commissioner for Migrations Dimitris Avramopulos has announced that the agreement on the deployment of Frontex in Serbia will be signed today.
The US Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina told Radio Free Europe that the US supports the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and that there are no parallels between Kosovo, Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS).
"What we support when it comes to Kosovo is definitely a dialogue that is being conducted, which we believe should be conducted until a solution is reached that will be the result of a joint agreement between both sides. We certainly welcome the role of the EU in those talks," US Ambassador to BiH Maureen Cormack told RFE.
Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic said a solution for Kosovo and Metohija is not on the table and it should be patiently looked for, FoNet news agency reported,
Dacic made these remarks in a conference “Western Balkan Security Challanges and Serbia” organized by the Centre for Foreign Policy in Belgrade.
“An idea on delineation that was presented is an option Aleksandar Vucic publicly mentioned and it should yet be a topic of discussion, since the talks did not move ahead in the sense of something concrete, but ideas and options were presented,” Dacic noted.
RTK in Serbian language in an article published yesterday pointed out investments in the four northern municipalities are made from three separate budgets: Government of Kosovo, Government of Serbia, and the Development Fund for the North, while there are different organizations and EU countries, that are also investing there.
However, residents of Mitrovica North say the investments are not felt on the ground. They think that money is not distributed fairly, and it is being invested in wrong projects which are not beneficial for the citizens.
Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday that Serbia would not first accept the independence of Kosovo and then negotiate with Pristina, adding "that’s for sure," the Beta news agency reported.
After meeting his Cape Verde’s counterpart Luis Filipe Taveras in Belgrade, Ivica Dacic told reporters that "unilaterally declared independence (of Kosovo) was an illegal act."
"Our stand is that we don’t recognise Kosovo, an illegal creation."
Serbian European Integrations Minister, Jadranka Joksimovic and Head of the European Union Delegation in Belgrade, Sem Fabrizi said today that an agreement on the deployment of Frontex along Serbia’s borders is being negotiated and could be signed soon, TV N1 reported.