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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia determined to become EU member

Berlin, 25 July 2008

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said that achievement of Serbia’s European goals does not mean that the Serbian government gives up the diplomatic battle for preservation of the country’s territorial integrity and underlined that Belgrade is committed to cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

In an interview to today’s edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jeremic said that the Serbian government has always been committed to full cooperation with the ICTY, adding that Serbia is bound to that cooperation not only by international laws, but by domestic ones as well.

Cooperation with the ICTY and the diplomatic struggle for safeguarding Serbia’s territorial integrity will remain our foreign policy priorities. We believe in international law, both in the case of the ICTY and Kosovo, minister said.

He said that there are some EU countries that are against enlargement and which, even after the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, are very hard on Serbia.

Those countries are basically against Serbia‘s EU accession and that of other West Balkans countries, but they do not dare to say that openly. That is why I expect very strong opposition from some EU members to Serbia’s admission, Jeremic said.

Those countries will use the ICTY as an excuse, but we will invalidate that excuse. The topic of indictees at large will soon be behind us. I am sure that they will invent new excuses then because such is the policy. But we will overcome those obstacles as well. We are determined to become an EU member, he stressed.

According to him, if the great step of Karadzic’s arrest goes without a response from the EU, the work of the Serbian government will be made much more difficult.

He said that Serbia will submit a request to the International Court of Justice at the UN General Assembly to examine whether the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo’s independence is in line with international law.

The minister pointed out that Serbia is pressured to abide by international law in the case of the ICTY and that is why there is no reason why Serbia should be prevented from requesting the same in the case of Kosovo.

Commenting on the decision of the Serbian government to return ambassadors to EU countries, Jeremic said that Serbia’s aim is to obtain EU candidate status by the end of the year and in order to achieve that, it must use all its diplomatic resources, which however does not mean that we have given up the diplomatic battle for Kosovo.