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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Recognition of “Kosovo” not mentioned in negotiating position of EU with Serbia

Belgrade/Ohrid, 17 June 2022

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic pointed out today, in a statement to the press in Ohrid, that at the Prespa Forum held in that city, she showed a document, which is the official negotiating position of the EU with Serbia, in which not a word is mentioned regarding the recognition of the so-called Kosovo by our country.

Brnabic said that in this way she responded to the claims heard in the previous days at that forum that our country allegedly knows that it is necessary to recognise “Kosovo” in order to join the EU, but that it is ignoring that.

The Prime Minister pointed out that in the negotiating position, in Chapter 35, under paragraph 1, the normalisation of relations between Serbia and the so-called Kosovo is mentioned and "Kosovo" is marked with an asterisk.

This means that the EU negotiating position with Serbia says that the label "Kosovo" is in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which recognises the territorial integrity of the internationally recognised Serbia, Brnabic emphasised.

According to her, it states that Serbia remains committed to dialogue under the auspices of the EU, is engaged in reaching new agreements in new areas, improving the process of normalisation of relations in good faith, with the aim of gradually leading to comprehensive normalisation of relations between Serbia and “Kosovo" in line with the negotiating framework.

Those who say that this is taken for granted seem not to know the official position of the EU. If the EU stands by that, then it must change its negotiating position, and while it is in force, it is an official document and no other stories can play a role, the Prime Minister said.

Answering journalists’ question about how a parallel can be drawn between "Kosovo" and Ukraine, Brnabic stressed that the international legal order and international law were violated in 1999 and 2008 to the detriment of Serbia and the Serbian people, adding that the world has not been the same place since then because everything has become possible because the world is ruled by the law of the stronger and not by international law.

The Prime Minister pointed out that it is completely clear what international law and the international legal order are, which imply the inviolability of the territorial integrity of internationally recognised states.