Degert: Kosovo not condition for EU accession
Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia Vincent Degert stated on Wednesday that the recognition of Kosovo's independence is not a condition for Serbia's EU accession and specified that the European Council is in charge of setting the conditions and not some politicians or MPs in the EU member countries.
(kosovocompromisestuff) Thursday, February 14, 2013
Elements and expectations (in terms of EU accession) are quite clear and recognition of Kosovo is not one of them, Degert told reporters commenting on the statement of Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French parliament Elisabeth Guigou, who said that recognition of Kosovo could be set to Serbia as a condition for EU membership.
The voice Serbia should be listening to is the voice of the European Council where 27 countries are deciding on the rules together, he said and added that different opinions could be heard from time to time among politicians and MPs but the members have a consensus on the elements such as the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and normalisation of relations and this point needs to be resolved. Degert underscored that many steps have already been taken in the process aimed at normalisation of relations but a lot of work still needs to be done.
He expressed the expectation that fresh progress would be made in Brussels on February 19, when Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic is supposed to meet with High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci.
According to him, Brussels expects the issue connected to the office of the liaison officer to be resolved in the next period, as well as other issues in the areas of energy, telecommunications, implementation of protocols on integrated crossing management and the situation in northern Kosovo.
We should not forget reinforcement of the reform process, judiciary, fight against corruption, public administration reform and media strategy, he said and noted that previous Serbian governments invested a lot of effort in the search for a solution to many key issues and achieved considerable progress in this area.
When asked whether Serbia can expect to win the date of EU accession talks in June, Degert replied that June is a moderately safe date to expect such a decision in case all conditions are fulfilled.
The voice Serbia should be listening to is the voice of the European Council where 27 countries are deciding on the rules together, he said and added that different opinions could be heard from time to time among politicians and MPs but the members have a consensus on the elements such as the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and normalisation of relations and this point needs to be resolved. Degert underscored that many steps have already been taken in the process aimed at normalisation of relations but a lot of work still needs to be done.
He expressed the expectation that fresh progress would be made in Brussels on February 19, when Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic is supposed to meet with High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci.
According to him, Brussels expects the issue connected to the office of the liaison officer to be resolved in the next period, as well as other issues in the areas of energy, telecommunications, implementation of protocols on integrated crossing management and the situation in northern Kosovo.
We should not forget reinforcement of the reform process, judiciary, fight against corruption, public administration reform and media strategy, he said and noted that previous Serbian governments invested a lot of effort in the search for a solution to many key issues and achieved considerable progress in this area.
When asked whether Serbia can expect to win the date of EU accession talks in June, Degert replied that June is a moderately safe date to expect such a decision in case all conditions are fulfilled.
