Dacic Wants to Know when Brussels Will Address Serb Municipalities

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/Foreign Ministry/Ognjen Stevanovic)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sept. 25 that it was astounding that seven years later, Brussels, a cosignatory to the agreement that envisages the creation of a Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo, had no reaction to that part of the deal not being implemented.

Dacic said this to Prva TV while commenting on a statement by Miroslav Lajcak, the European Union's special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialog, who said technical talks would resume in Brussels on Sept. 28, but without touching on the Community.

"When will they touch on it, is my question to Lajcak," Dacic said.

What's the point of negotiating anything with Pristina if they won't respect what was signed, the Serbian minister wondered. "Does that mean that Pristina won't carry out what was signed in Washington recently?" Dacic asked.

He recalled that though the Washington deal included a moratorium on campaigning for withdrawal of recognition for Kosovo and on Pristina's campaigning for recognition, the foreign minister of "so-called Kosovo" had sent a letter to Bosnia and Herzegovina asking them to recognize Kosovo as independent.

He said the EU either would or could not play the role of "iron first" and oblige someone, in this case Pristina, to make good on a deal. Dacic believes that it is different with the U.S. and that they are an iron fist.