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Ninth round of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue ended with no agreement

Belgrade/Brussels, 18 April 2013

Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said late yesterday in Brussels that Belgrade was ready to accept the agreement on the powers of the association of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija.

Author: Tanjug

Dacic told reporters after the ninth round of dialogue with representatives of the provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo that representative of Pristina Hashim Thaci obstructed reaching the agreement by binding the issue of powers of the community of Serbian municipalities with Kosovo's membership in international organisations, including the UN, which the Serbian delegation could not accept.

The Prime Minister underlined that the Serbian delegation is ready to continue talks with Pristina until all issues are solved.

There were 15 points in the dialogue which are acceptable for us, except for the one that binds the issue of the police in the north of Kosovo with Kosovo’s membership in international organisations, Dacic reiterated.

He added that the talks were difficult and thanked EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton on the proposals, which were much more acceptable than in the previous rounds of dialogue and stated that in many issues the positions of the two sides are now much closer.

Dacic underlined that it is obvious that Pristina was not ready to accept the deal, and that their representatives during the meeting threatened that the issue of northern Kosovo could be solved using some other methods, adding that now it is important to keep common sense and try to reach a solution in the coming days.

The Prime Minister reiterated that Serbia is committed to achieving a solution and that the Serbian delegation was unified and did everything in line with our interests.

We are not asking for the impossible and are very serious about these talks, not only in order to get the date for the start of accession negotiations with the EU, but because of the people who live in Kosovo-Metohija, Dacic said, adding that Belgrade is just looking for a solution that is acceptable to both sides.

Dacic underlined that the Serbian delegation did not come to Brussels to obstruct dialogue with Pristina, but to reach a solution through compromise.

He explained that the Pristina side introduced a new topic in dialogue, linking it to the issue of the police in the north of Kosovo, which would bind the two sides not to obstruct each other in the membership in international organisations.

They cannot block us anywhere, so if we accepted that request that would mean that we recognise Kosovo's independence, which we will never do, Dacic said.

We want the issue of Kosovo to be positively solved, Dacic stated and pointed to the readiness of the Serbian government to include NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in the talks about the problem of the presence of Kosovo security forces in the north of Kosovo.