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Blockade of Serbian goods might harm continuation of Belgrade, Pristina dialogue
Belgrade,
25 July 2011
State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija Oliver Ivanovic said today that Serbia will not give in under the pressure from Pristina authorities to recognise the stamp of the Kosovo customs and underlined that the blockade of Serbian goods at Merdare checkpoint is contrary to all principles of the EU and the US.
Ivanovic said in TV news on Radio Television Serbia that this move has a political goal.
Serbia did not block the CEFTA agreement and the EU and the US should be given time to react, he pointed out, adding that the provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo are waiting for a signal from Brussels or Washington to change their decision.
According to him, the recognition of Kosovo customs stamps would be the same as recognising the independent state of Kosovo and the claims of Pristina that Kosovo suffers great damage because of the recent sales of goods in Serbia in the amount of $50 million are out of place.
In one year, the most they can sell to us is $50 million and they buy from us goods worth $380 million, which means that the issue here is not of economic nature, but strictly political, Ivanovic explained.
The State Secretary recalled that a few dozen trucks have been waiting at Merdare checkpoint for days and the drivers expect to get permission today from the authorities in Pristina to deliver goods to trading companies in the southern province.
He underlined that Pristina decided to make the blockade at the time when a large number of officials in Brussels and Washington are on vacation and used a dead period when both production and marketing of goods are smaller in volume so as to create the least damage and cause political impact.
If they care about our dialogue then they will have to think about creating conditions for this dialogue, that we do not complicate the situation and destroy every possibility for the continuation of dialogue in September, Ivanovic underlined.
Commenting the shifting of attention to the status of Kosovo-Metohija after the extradition of the last Hague indictee Goran Hadzic, he said that recognition of Kosovo will never be a condition for Serbia, given that the Serbian government and the Serbian President repeated several times that they will not accept this condition.
The State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija voiced hope that Europe will understand that it needs Serbia as its member and that it is in the interest of Serbia’s citizens to join the EU, but that Europe also has interest in this because stability in the Balkans largely depends on Serbia’s stability, and Serbia will be stable once it becomes an EU member.
According to him, the recognition of Kosovo customs stamps would be the same as recognising the independent state of Kosovo and the claims of Pristina that Kosovo suffers great damage because of the recent sales of goods in Serbia in the amount of $50 million are out of place.
In one year, the most they can sell to us is $50 million and they buy from us goods worth $380 million, which means that the issue here is not of economic nature, but strictly political, Ivanovic explained.
The State Secretary recalled that a few dozen trucks have been waiting at Merdare checkpoint for days and the drivers expect to get permission today from the authorities in Pristina to deliver goods to trading companies in the southern province.
He underlined that Pristina decided to make the blockade at the time when a large number of officials in Brussels and Washington are on vacation and used a dead period when both production and marketing of goods are smaller in volume so as to create the least damage and cause political impact.
If they care about our dialogue then they will have to think about creating conditions for this dialogue, that we do not complicate the situation and destroy every possibility for the continuation of dialogue in September, Ivanovic underlined.
Commenting the shifting of attention to the status of Kosovo-Metohija after the extradition of the last Hague indictee Goran Hadzic, he said that recognition of Kosovo will never be a condition for Serbia, given that the Serbian government and the Serbian President repeated several times that they will not accept this condition.
The State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija voiced hope that Europe will understand that it needs Serbia as its member and that it is in the interest of Serbia’s citizens to join the EU, but that Europe also has interest in this because stability in the Balkans largely depends on Serbia’s stability, and Serbia will be stable once it becomes an EU member.
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