Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia to present proposal regarding Kosovo status as first article on the agenda

Belgrade, 28 August 2007

Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said today that the delegation of the state negotiating team for talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija will present its proposal regarding the status issue as the first article on the agenda at the upcoming meeting in Vienna.

In a statement to the news agency Beta, Samardzic said that the agenda for the meeting with the troika of envoys scheduled to take place on August 30 has arrived in Belgrade.

The first article on the agenda is presentation of the Serbian proposal regarding the status issue, and the other is agreement on contents of the next meeting, said Samardzic.

He said that the proposal by Serbia envisages substantial autonomy for Kosovo-Metohija, with all details, which bear upon the position of Kosovo-Metohija in the new context, in a plan which will provide a maximum level of self governance, the right to decide on all important questions, with legal guarantees for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia.

Samardzic said that this framework includes the Serbian recommendation for international guarantees for such an arrangement, since status without international guarantees could not possibly be realised.

Belgrade’s proposal, on the one hand includes the view on status, and on the other the international arrangement which should secure the functioning of such a status for Kosovo-Metohija within the borders of Serbia, said Samardzic, who will lead the Serbian delegation at the meeting in Vienna.

Samardzic welcomed such an agenda, since, as he said, the international troika has decided to make the status issue the main subject of negotiations.

Besides, we count upon status being the main subject of direct talks with the Albanian delegation at future meetings. Our side in the recent period constantly insisted upon direct talks with the Albanian delegation regarding the future issue of Kosovo-Metohija, he said.

With two days left before the meeting between Belgrade and Pristina in the presence of the international troika of envoys, Samardzic directed attention to statements by international officials, which he called counterproductive in the effort to create a good atmosphere for negotiations.

Such statements, he recalled, also include the statement by US Ambassador to the UN Security Council Zalmay Khalilzad, who said that his country supports independence for Kosovo-Metohija, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that France accepts so called “supervised independence”.

Such statements prior to the negotiations not only are counterproductive, but have a directly destructive affect upon the negotiating process. The US has its representative in the troika, who should make an effort for a good beginning to the negotiations, and France similarly is represented by EU representative Wolfgang Ischinger, and it is exceedingly strange that such statements are being made just prior to the negotiations, said Samardzic.

He warned that such statements could have a negative affect upon the talks.

We appeal that certain countries at least refrain from making statements during the negotiations, so that they do not create a bad atmosphere and unreal expectations on the Albanian side regarding these negotiations. Otherwise, the Albanian delegation, as was the case earlier, will once again not be interested in participating in real negotiations, concluded Samardzic.