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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Visit to Rome improves dialogue between Serbia and Italy

Belgrade/Rome, 6 July 2006

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview to Italian daily La Stampa that his yesterday's visit to Rome was successful and that it contributed to improving dialogue between Serbia and Italy.

Kostunica said that he has known some members of the government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for a long time, and that Prodi himself visited Belgrade on various occasions while he was the president of the European Commission. Yesterday in Rome a fruitful dialogue was continued.

He pointed out that the Italian government helps Serbia in its efforts to revive talks with the European Union and reiterated that it is not good that the EU "froze" negotiations with Serbia on the stabilisation and association agreement precisely on the eve of the referendum in Montenegro.

In my opinion, negotiations were called off immediately prior to the Montenegrin referendum on purpose. That was a problem for us, the Prime Minister said and added that relations between Belgrade and Podgorica remained good after the referendum.

According to Kostunica, it would be much more reasonable if Serbia had been given more time and opportunities to complete cooperation with the Hague tribunal. The talks should have been carried out until the end and if Serbia had failed to hand over Mladic to the Hague by that time, then the negotiations should have been called off prior to the very signing of the agreement.

Kostunica said that now the situation is somewhat different because he has the impression that the EU has become aware of Serbia's importance for stability in the Balkans.

Speaking about future status of Kosovo-Metohija, Kostunica repeated what he had told the Italian Prime Minister and his ministers - that Serbia will not accept Kosovo's independence and cannot let part of its territory be taken away by force.

I explained Serbia's position to D'Alema, Dini and Ranieri, who are very well familiar with our situation and all its complexity, Kostunica said. Minister of Interior Giuliano Amato has a different opinion regarding Kosovo's independence, however, all of us agreed that any solution that might be found must include compromise, the Prime Minister underlined.

Kostunica said that it is clear that the solution for Kosovo's future status cannot be found quickly, although "the position of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo continues to deteriorate."

Two-thirds of the expelled Serbs have not returned to their homes, and in Pristina, of whose 250,000 citizens 50,000 were Serbs, today there is less than 100 of them, Kostunica said.