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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia against double standards

Belgrade, 16 September 2015

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic stated today that the rights of national minorities, by European standards, should be a universal category, valid for all, not just for our country.

Commenting on yesterday's statement by Spokesperson of the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Maja Kocijancic that Serbia is obliged to treat the Albanian national minority in accordance with European standards and conventions, he assessed that this attitude demonstrates once again the existence of double standards.

He recalled that just a month ago representative of the media service of the European Commission Tove Ernst, commenting on the prohibition of use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Vukovar, said that the EU has no competence with regard to minorities, and that this competence belongs to the Member States that decide on minorities.

In this context, the First Deputy Prime Minister asked how it is possible that there are two different criteria for Serbia and Croatia.

He asked how it is possible to justify the formation of a so-called community of Albanian municipalities, an illegal and illegitimate body, since in two of the three municipalities Albanian councillors are not the majority, and that the EU is silent over the prohibition of Cyrillic and re-emergence of fascism and the Ustasha ideology in Croatia.

The spokesperson of the EU High Representative should not address criticism to Serbia before she is ready to talk about the problems of Serbs in Croatia, Dacic underlined in a written statement to the public.