President and govt. to debate resolution January 1
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said Friday that a joint meeting of the Serbian government and President Tomislav Nikolic on the preparation of a resolution on Kosovo would most likely be held on January 8 and that the parliament would likely vote on it on January 11.
(KosovoCompromiseStuff) Friday, December 28, 2012
After that session, Dacic told Radio Television of Serbia, a resolution will be proposed that will be based on the principles for the resumption of the negotiations with the provisional institutions in Pristina.
It is necessary for as great a consensus as possible to be reached in the parliament about the document, he added.
"The resolution will deal with the basic principles and starting points that will not go into much details and that concern Serbia's stance that it will not accept the independence of Kosovo," Dacic said, adding that now, at the moment when a comprehensive solution to the problem cannot be found, the position of the Serbs in Kosovo is very important.
He explained that the document would also state that any progress in the dialogue should be accompanied by a progress in European integration and that the Kosovo Serbs should take an active role in the negotiations.
Dacic said that the platform on Kosovo had been analyzed and subjected to different opinions, just like it had been planned.
Now these proposals have crystallized, and the document has already been submitted to the facilitator in the dialogue, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he said.
"We shall, therefore, go on with the dialogue," the prime minister said, adding that, as Ashton has announced, the topics will involve the parallelism of institutions in Kosovo and, as Ashton was careful to say, the specific position of the Serbs in Kosovo.
"The plan is to talk about these issues until the summer, but I want to say that the next lap time is March, and if we want to progress in European integration, which I am convinced is the only useful thing to do, we will not have enough time in that period to implement what we advocate for, even if someone accepts the territorial autonomy," said Dacic.
It is therefore important for Serbia not to deviate from its starting positions, which will be defined in the resolution, and to make sure to provide the start of EU membership negotiations by the end of June next year, he said.
It is necessary for as great a consensus as possible to be reached in the parliament about the document, he added.
"The resolution will deal with the basic principles and starting points that will not go into much details and that concern Serbia's stance that it will not accept the independence of Kosovo," Dacic said, adding that now, at the moment when a comprehensive solution to the problem cannot be found, the position of the Serbs in Kosovo is very important.
He explained that the document would also state that any progress in the dialogue should be accompanied by a progress in European integration and that the Kosovo Serbs should take an active role in the negotiations.
Dacic said that the platform on Kosovo had been analyzed and subjected to different opinions, just like it had been planned.
Now these proposals have crystallized, and the document has already been submitted to the facilitator in the dialogue, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he said.
"We shall, therefore, go on with the dialogue," the prime minister said, adding that, as Ashton has announced, the topics will involve the parallelism of institutions in Kosovo and, as Ashton was careful to say, the specific position of the Serbs in Kosovo.
"The plan is to talk about these issues until the summer, but I want to say that the next lap time is March, and if we want to progress in European integration, which I am convinced is the only useful thing to do, we will not have enough time in that period to implement what we advocate for, even if someone accepts the territorial autonomy," said Dacic.
It is therefore important for Serbia not to deviate from its starting positions, which will be defined in the resolution, and to make sure to provide the start of EU membership negotiations by the end of June next year, he said.
