Dacic, Bakoyannis Discuss Kosovo

Meeting of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, 16-17 May in Chania, Crete (Photo:National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia/Public Relations Department)

Ivica Dacic, speaker of the Serbian parliament, discussed Kosovo in Crete, on May 16, with Dora Bakoyannis, head of the Greek parliament's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The two officials met on the sidelines of a session of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, which appointed Bakoyannis to compile a report on the situation in Kosovo as rapporteur.

Commenting on Pristina's recent application for membership in the Council of Europe, Dacic said it was very important to Belgrade that the report should cover all issues in PACE's purview  -- the state of democracy and institutions in Kosovo, rule of law and human rights, while maintaining a status-neutral approach, read a press release issued by the Serbian parliament.

Dacic stressed the expectation that the report should analyze the position of the Serb population in Kosovo, especially the constant violation of that population's fundamental human rights. He pointed out that Serbian citizens in Kosovo had not been provided the opportunity to express their will and take part at a recent referendum and subsequent parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia.

In an address to the PACE Committee session in Chania, the Serbian speaker said that, at the elections in April, Serbian citizens had given prevailing support to the political forces that are working on European Union integration and that keep that integration among its top political and social priorities.

"Just like the European Union has been experiencing so-called enlargement fatigue for some time, so have Serbia and the West Balkan region been experiencing their own 'EU association fatigue.' We want both sides to snap out of it and put the fatigue behind us. Serbia and the entire West Balkans deserve for their desires and their efforts to join the European Union to be rated much faster than to date," Dacic said.