PM: EU Documents Never Say That Serbia Should Recognize Kosovo

Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN GOVERNMENT/SLOBODAN MILJEVIC)

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said in Ohrid on June 17 that official European Union documents never stated that recognizing so-called Kosovo was a condition for Serbia to join the EU and that, if that was being demanded, the negotiating network must be changed, which would be very difficult.

At one of the sessions on the second day of the Prespa forum for dialog, she said the representatives of some EU countries had reiterated at the conference on June 16 that Serbia should not be surprised that the EU was increasingly stressing that Serbia could not become a member without recognizing the independence of the so-called Republic of Kosovo.

Noting that she had the official EU negotiating document in front of her, she stressed that there was not a single word in the EU's official position that recognizing Kosovo was a must. She added that Serbia was hearing something new, that it had heard this from some of its partners, but that the word never came down officially from the EU that this would be a requirement for Serbia to join the EU.

"If this is an actual demand, then the negotiating framework needs to change. So, we know what we're saying and it says so in the negotiating framework, it says so in the entire documentation. That is expected to be difficult, because five EU countries have not recognized so-called Kosovo. It is going to be very hard to change the negotiating framework," she said.