Serbia not to Give up on Kosovo

Kostunica: Serbia not to Give up on Kosovo in Exchange for faster EU
Accession (Danas)



Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with Danas that Serbia
would never accept to give up on Kosovo in exchange for a faster EU
accession and stressed that Belgrade would respond with all legal means to
an eventual independence of Kosovo. He has expressed his optimism that the
solution 'to the most difficult problem of the state' will not be
detrimental to Serbia. "A part of international community largely considers
that there is only one possible option, that is, that Kosovo should become
independent, and therefore only presents its superficial advantages. This
option has many flaws, and the solution that we advocate - the substantial
autonomy has many advantages."


When asked how serious was Tomislav Nikolic's call for defending Kosovo
militarily, Kostuica said that for him the most important thing is that the
Kosovo debate should first go through the Parliament, and the Belgrade
negotiating team would submit its report to the Serbian Parliament in early
autumn: "The Parliament is the only democratic forum for discussing Kosovo.
If we think about the worst Kosovo outcome, the position of our country
would be to conclude that Kosovo is a part of Serbia. It is not an empty
rhetoric, but a constitutional and legal formulation," said Kostunica.

 

According to him, Serbia has until now used arguments of legality and not of
force. "We would like to continue to do that. Arguments of force are often
on other sides, in certain parts of the international community that
sometimes condition our European integrations with giving up on Kosovo. It
is impossible. There are certain criteria for all countries that wish to
become EU members. No country has been conditioned with giving up a part of
its territory in order to join the EU. This cannot be applied to Serbia."