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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Rama presents false statements that Serbia violates CEFTA agreement

Belgrade, 5 December 2018

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said today that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama presented untrue facts when he said that Serbia has violated the CEFTA agreement and that allegedly Pristina complained, pointing out that it is a political spin with the intention of blaming Serbia for all unreasonable decisions made by Pristina.

At a press conference in the government of Serbia, Brnabic said that she naively trusted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama that he would invite Pristina to get reasonable, noting that what Pristina is doing is the politics of the 19th century, and called on Pristina authorities to finally explain the real reason they imposed taxes on Serbian products because they have so far only presented a number of excuses.

She said that she thinks that someone who is a prime minister must act responsibly, and Rama, instead of contributing to raising the quality of life of citizens in his own country and region, made false statements with the aim of spinning.

According to Brnabic, the sole aim of this statement by the Prime Minister of Albania is to politically spin and blame Serbia for all unreasonable decisions of Pristina.

The first reason they initially gave was that the fees were introduced in response to the fact that Serbia did not allow the membership of the so-called "Republic of Kosovo" to Interpol, she said.

All of this was heard by Serbia and other countries in the region, the EU and the international community. Since it did not make any sense, they changed now, and now they say it is because allegedly Serbia violates the CEFTA agreement, the Prime Minister noted.

Brnabic said Pristina should consider why they imposed taxes, so Serbia could respond to that.

She said that it is unbelievable that the Albanian Prime Minister went further and said that Pristina had complained about the violation of the agreement, but that there was no reaction by the other side.

How did Pristina complain and when? Show us that complaint. The CEFTA agreement is clear and unambiguous. There is a formal process for filing a complaint, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Brnabic recalled that on 27 November, Serbia sent an official request to the CEFTA Secretariat for launching a dispute settlement mechanism.

If there is no such evidence that Pristina has complained of a violation of the CEFTA agreement, then Rama consciously and deliberately tried to deceive the public in the region, but above all partners in the EU, because the violation of the CEFTA agreement primarily signifies the violation of the SAA by Pristina, the Prime Minister said.