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 continues to fight for Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade, 15 September 2008

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic stated tonight that Serbia’s initiative in the UN seeking for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of the declaration of independence by Kosovo will be an extremely difficult battle.

Jeremic told Radio Television Serbia that official Belgrade did a lot to alleviate resistance of some influential world countries and that it managed to win over a lot of countries, hence we have reasons to be optimistic.

If Serbia’s initiative is prevented, this would be the first case in the history of the UN that a request of a country seeking the ICJ’s advisory opinion is rejected, he said.

Whether other countries will allow such a precedent remains to be seen, the Minister said.

He also commented on the decision of the EU Council of Ministers and noted that Holland’s and Belgium’s opposition to the unfreezing of the Transitional Trade Agreement with Serbia is not a defeat but only delaying the next step to Serbia’s full EU membership.

He said that Belgrade is still conditioned by full cooperation with the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), noting that most countries think that Serbia cooperates fully with the tribunal.

The countries opposing the unfreezing of the agreement are aware that Serbia fully cooperates with The Hague, especially after the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, but some countries, namely Holland, are facing interior problems, which is why they are blocking the move.

Without a dilemma, we can say that interior problems in Holland were the reason for the Agreement not being unfrozen at this meeting. I expect this will be done at the next meeting or the one after, Jeremic said.

He also said that in principle, Holland opposes EU enlargement, but once cooperation with the ICTY is concluded, Holland will no longer have any argument against.

Jeremic stressed that Serbia is in a difficult situation when it comes to the fight for Kosovo-Metohija but the state will continue to fight for the province.