FM Dacic: No Talks on Franco-German Plan Before Community of Serb Municipalities is Formed

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Ivica Dacic, leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia and incumbent minister of foreign affairs, said on Dec. 13 that there will be no discussion on implementing the Franco-German plan until a Community of Serb Municipalities is formed in Kosovo and Metohija.

In an interview for BETA, Dacic, who is also the lead candidate on his party’s eponymous Ivica Dacic – Prime Minister ticket in the upcoming parliamentary election, stated that Serbia will never recognize Kosovo’s independence and expressed his hope that the Franco-German plan for Kosovo will not be included in Chapter 35 of Serbia accession negotiations with the European Union.

The Socialists are a patriotic party, Dacic said. Asked whether he considered signing the Brussels and Washington agreements or the acceptance of the Franco-German plan and Ohrid roadmap patriotic, Dacic responded that official Belgrade’s fundamental goal is to prevent the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations.

In 15 years since unilaterally declaring independence, he said, Kosovo has not managed to get it actually verified.

“Of the 110 countries which initially recognized Kosovo, [the number] is now 84 out of the 194 members [comprising] the U.N. The Brussels Agreement was signed to enable a dialogue, not to undermine [Serbia’s] national interests. The formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities was supposed to transform Serbia’s institutions in Kosovo into Serb institutions in Kosovo, with the caveat that Kosovo security forces were precluded from entering the territory inhabited by Serbs. In addition, all Kosovo institutions under the protectorate of the U.N. were supposed to be composed of Serbs,” he said.