In an interview to the weekend edition of the Danas daily, Kostunica said that nothing should remain hidden.
Serbia and its citizens must be fully acquainted with the document which we are to sign with the EU, and they must know whether or not we are putting our signature to the continuation of the integration process or to the independence of Kosovo, said the Prime Minister.
In order to dispel all doubts regarding the issue of Serbia’s territorial integrity in the SAA, this document should be supplemented with a sentence explicitly stating that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia, he said.
Kostunica recalled that the SAA obliges the signatories to maintain good neighbourly relations with countries in the region and added that if everything is not made perfectly clear, such a stance could be one day interpreted as Serbia’s obligation to establish good neighbourly relations with Kosovo.
According to him, the SAA indeed contains a paragraph in which UN Security Council Resolution 1244 is mentioned, but warned that this alone is not a sufficient guarantee of Serbia’s territorial integrity considering that some EU states, which recognised Kosovo, claim that the province’s independence is in accordance with that Resolution.
Kostunica endorsed the stance by Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek that all Balkan countries should be given EU candidate status, provided that this refers to all Balkan states that are UN members.
On the other hand, it is possible that Busek means that Kosovo should be given EU candidate status, which would be an even greater precedent than the recognition of its unilateral independence, noted Kostunica.