Head of EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that EU did not pressure Serbia, and that, when it comes to opening of negotiations, it insisted on fulfilling commitments under Brussels Agreement and normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations.
“This is about fulfilling commitments under the Agreement of 19 April 2013 and other agreements within Dialogue about comprehensive normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations. That is what it was always about. All of 28 EU Member States are still unanimous in their stance about the necessity of achieving comprehensive normalisation of relations,” Davenport told press during his visit to Criminal Police Directorate in Belgrade.
Asked whether this was about Belgrade-Pristina or Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, Davenport said that “it was not about recognising Kosovo independence but about normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations” and added that European Commission recommended Member States to open first chapter within Serbia’s EU accession negotiations.
“There is now a serious possibility to open chapter 35, dealing with implementation of commitments within Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. I do hope that the chapter would be opened and continuation of Dialogue based on full implementation of each of the obligations within agreement. Naturally, normalisation will comprise even more obligations,” Davenport told press in Belgrade.
Davenport added that High Representative of EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini had called Prime Ministers Aleksandar Vucic and Isa Mustafa to continue the Dialogue in Brussels, which, as he put it, so far had huge success.
He underlined that the EU understood that Serbian Government was fully committed to Dialogue with Pristina and EU accession and expected to open chapters about rule of law and security as soon as possible.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR. 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
