Tadic: No “EU for Kosovo” trade
Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Wednesday that trading Kosovo for an entry into the European Union was out of the question for Belgrade.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, September 20, 2007
"Agreement is possible if certain politicians from European countries and the U.S. would stop encouraging Kosovo Albanians' attempts to declare independence. If the Kosovo Albanians feel they're receiving support from abroad, they won't want to take part in talks," Tadic told the Prague daily Hospodarske Noviny.
"They won't be drawn towards a true compromise, they'll wait for talks to collapse, and then they'll declare independence," the Serbian president warned, adding that was the worst case scenario, and one that could ultimately lead to war.
He categorically rejected the idea of Serbia giving up on Kosovo, in exchange for EU membership, and stressed that the country's governing coalition were absolutely united on two issues: European integration and Kosovo.
Tadic also stressed that the biggest obstacle for Serbian membership of the EU was indeed Kosovo's possible independence. "If the European states support an independent Kosovo, European integration will prove very difficult."
"The ultimate scenario sees Serbia either as an isolated country, or as a country with much closer relations with the other nations of the world," the president concluded.
