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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia defends its national, state interests with Brussels agreement

Belgrade, 26 April 2013

Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic stated today that the Draft agreement reached in Brussels in dialogue with the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina is an opportunity for Serbia to try to defend its national and state interests in a different way.

Speaking at a special session of the Serbian Parliament, at which MPs are examining the Report on the process of political and technical dialogue with the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina to date, with the mediation of the EU, including the process of implementation of the agreements reached, Dacic said that the Draft agreement allows for the continuation of European integration which is of essential importance for the Serbian people.

He said that this document creates the opportunity to talk about Kosovo on an equal footing, and called on MPs to be united regardless of the different views on the agreement.

The Prime Minister said due to the set framework in which the negotiations were conducted, these were the most difficult political negotiations on Kosovo- Metohija.

Dacic recalled that these were the first negotiations that were held after the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and the fact that a significant number of countries recognised this unilateral and illegal declaration of independence.

He explained that the framework set was such that mediation in dialogue was transferred from the UN to the EU, at Serbia’s request.

The Prime Minister reiterated that Serbia did not recognise the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo-Metohija by accepting the Brussels agreement, nor did it surrender, and that no one from the EU asked Serbia to recognise Kosovo’s independence, and even if they had done that, Serbia would not have accepted it.

This is a temporary solution, the maximum that Serbia could achieve at this moment, although many are not happy with it and everyone would be happy if we could have achieved a lot more, he underlined and noted that the wisdom in diplomacy is to get what you can.

According to him, the alternative was for Serbia to leave the negotiations, to block the process, isolate the country and that international forums are held without our presence.

As long as Serbia is at the negotiating table it has a chance to improve its situation, and once it abandons the talks, it will lose everything and that is something which this government did not want to allow, nor it ever will, Dacic declared.

For this reason, the agreement that was initialled should be viewed as a charter of the rights and freedoms of the Serbs.

With this agreement, no one gained or lost anything, the process of untying the "Kosovo knot" will be long and difficult, which is why strength should be kept for that task, and not for quarrelling, the Prime Minister underlined.

We have been given a historical responsibility at this moment and we cannot run away from it, Dacic said and reiterated that at this moment Serbia could not have done better than what it did.