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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia will never recognise Kosovo independence

Belgrade, 27 March 2008

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said in an interview with the Politika daily that Serbia will never recognise an independent Kosovo, not trade with its southern province.

The government’s official website brings excerpts from the interview.

Is it realistic that Serbia joins the EU and as an EU member blocks Kosovo’s EU accession?

Little is known that the decision amending the Partnership Programme of the EU and the Western Balkans, published on March 10, 2008, states that the partnership with Serbia includes Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. As long as there is one country in the EU that rejects to recognise Kosovo, there is no fear that the text of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) will be changed; Article 135 of SAA also reaffirms Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo. And also, for Kosovo to be accepted in the EU, all EU members would have to recognise it. How can Spain or Romania vote for Kosovo’s accession if they do not recognise it?

There will be a lot of conditions for Serbia’s EU accession. One of them might be the recognition of an independent Kosovo?

We will never recognise an independent Kosovo. Never shall we trade with Kosovo.

What if there is a dillema – Kosovo or EU?

There will be no such dillema, no one is setting it. Our policy is clear – both Kosovo and Europe. If such dillema occurs, we will reject it. Everyone knows that. That’s why no one is setting the dilemma.

On the announcements of possible revision of the text of the SAA coming from diplomatic cirlces:

Those are all speculations. Once initialled, the document cannot be changed without the agreement of all parties.

Investments in Serbia:

We can be satisfied with the greater influx of investments. Privatisation in telecommuncations sector and sale of Serbian banks are predominant in the past two years. On the other side, in much tougher circumstances, privatisations providing important funds for investments were conducted at the start; these companies are now leading exporters. In 2007, of $3.1 billion in direct investments, 70% are Greenfield investments.

Situation on the domestic edible oil market:

In an urgent meeting I organised with representatives of the edible oil industry, I was assured that Dijamant will not increase the price of its edible oil from RSD 109.5 per litre and that they have enough supplies. We agreed with Minister of Trade and Services Predrag Bubalo and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Slobodan Milosavljevic to take all steps to prevent re-sale of edible oil and to distribute sunflower seed for free in order to increase the sown areas to 200,000 hectares.