Belgrade: Serbia will tell EU Kosovo is its part

Delevic told B92 that she did not believe that "anybody will be surprised by the fact that Serbia will give answers in accordance with the Constitution".

Delevic also noted that she did not think there would be "any expectation about Serbia declaring itself in some way, since there is no consent about the issues in question among EU member states themselves".

European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele told Novi Sad-based daily Dnevnik recently that the EU was not forcing Serbia to "choose between membership and tendency to have Kosovo as a part of Serbia", which, he said, would be confirmed in the questionnaire - a document submitted to every country during a review of its candidacy.

"The questions that the questionnaire will bring won't be a surprise to anybody because they are directed to help the Commission which will sort the opinions about our application for membership, and about how close we are to the fulfillment of the criteria," Delevic stated.

She pointed out that the questionnaire is the same for everyone, and that it could be expected that Serbia would receive the same documents as Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania had.

Delevic stressed that "there was no clear consensus in the EU about whether Kosovo was a state or not, but that there was agreement that it is necessary to include Kosovo into integration processes, on both European and regional level".

As Belgrade daily Blic writtes, the level of regional cooperation by Serbia but also moves by Belgrade after opinion by the International Court of Justice over Kosovo independence are crucial reasons because of which there is no consensus in the EU Council of Ministers over candidacy by Serbia

According to their diplomatic source, Brussels is following activity by Serbia which is preparing resolution on Kosovo for the UN Security Council. Belgrade is "expected" not to raise tension after decision by the ICJ whatever it may be - positive or negative. As their source adds Kosovo is not a condition for the candidate status but good regional cooperation and relations in the region are.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, said that so far there has been no official information on the scheduling or postonement of the date for the announcement of the opinion of counsel of the International Court of Justice in the Hague on the issue of legality of the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo.

Commenting on the news that the ICJ could announce the opinion by November and not in April of May, as announced, he said there was not precise deadline for the conclusion, but that it had been shown in practice that the court takes half a year to hold a hearing at a public session and reach a conclusion.

According to Russia, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia is not in compliance with the international law and is in serious breach of Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, he said.