"Czech Republic will not put so-called Kosovo's EU membership request on agenda"

Photo: Tanjug/Rade Prelic

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic said today that according to information he currently has, the Czech Republic will not put so-called Kosovo's request to join the EU in procedure by the end of Prague's EU presidency, but will only inform other members that the request has been received.

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"The Czech Republic has received the application, and according to announcements, as things stand now, at the session that should be held this week they will only inform others that they have received the application and will not put it further into procedure," Dacic said in a statement to journalists after a meeting with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Belgrade on Monday.

He added that the issue will be dealt with by the next country presiding over the EU, which is Sweden, due to take over that role from January 1.

"In the end, a decision on this must be made by consensus, which will not happen at this moment, because there are five (EU) countries, including Greece, that have not recognized Kosovo, and also bearing in mind the position of Hungary, which, regardless of the fact that it has recognized Kosovo, does not vote for Kosovo in international forums," said Dacic.

He added that Serbia still has a tough fight ahead in the Council of Europe (CoE).

"Everything has been moved to next year. Ireland did not want to finish that work during its mandate. Now it's Iceland's turn. We have talks ahead of us. Given that Iceland is holding a summit of Council of Europe member-states, it's not in their interest to stir up various problems. It's in their interest for that to pass in some sort of concord. That's why we expect that this topic will not be on the agenda soon," said Dacic.

He stressed that Pristina is violating both Brussels and Washington agreements and that Serbia will continue to work so that those countries that do not recognize so-called Kosovo to continue that way, and also with those that have recognized it to change that position, i.e., withdraw recognition.

He said that he heard from the Greek minister of foreign affairs that their position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija will remain principled, which would mean that Greece supports Serbia's territorial integrity and the sovereignty.

Asked by Tanjug about the announcement made by the president of Serbia that the public will soon be informed about which countries have withdrawn their recognition of so-called of Kosovo, Dacic said that this will happen at some point.

"What is certain is that there are 27 countries that have withdrawn recognition of Kosovo, 18 of them are known, regarding the other nine, we will see when the decision will be made to announce which countries these are," said Dacic.

(Telegraf.rs)