Dacic: Platform not planned to go to parliament

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday that it has never been a plan to send the Serbian platform for resolving the Kosovo issue in its entirety to the parliament, but rather that the body should voice its opinion on "starting principles" of the platform which will be done.

"One part is comprised of starting principles, which are due to be passed by the parliament, and they are further elaboration of the things we spoke about: that we do not want to recognize Kosovo's independence, that we are interested in the status of Serbs in the so-called interim period and interim arrangement when the status of KiM is not resolved, and that has to be linked to the EU integration process," Dacic told reporters.

The starting principles will be turned into a document, in the form of a resolution and declaration that will be put forward to the parliament, the other part of the platform being concrete proposals for the resolution of issues and they will not be sent to the parliament, as that should be done at the end of the negotiating process.

During a visit to the base of the Antiterrorist Unit of the Serbian Interior Ministry, Dacic said that it has yet to be agreed when the document on Kosovo will be on the parliament's agenda.

"When I said that the platform is not the Bible, I did not mean that it should not be adhered to, but that the things in the platform have yet to be fully defined, and as you know, certain changes to the text have been made in the last few days," Dacic said.

The part referring to the end of the Belgrade-Pristina technical dialogue has been changed as it is not realistic and in the interest of the state, as these are the only ongoing negotiations at the moment.

"In such a situation, one should work towards securing unity, political stability and the broadest possible consensus, although I am aware that the consensus in its full sense is rather hard to reach in Serbia on any topic, including the one on Kosovo," Dacic said.