Serbia will not recognise Kosovo, abandon its ethnic kin in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or impose sanctions on Russia, Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Wednesday, reacting to the latest EU enlargement report.
The report, published on Wednesday, said Serbia must align itself with the bloc’s foreign policy and step up its commitment to reform.
Speaking to reporters in Belgrade, Vulin noted, not without irony, that the comprehensive country report could have been summed up in a few sentences, to the effect that Serbia is explicitly being asked to meet those three demands.
“But we won’t recognise so-called Kosovo, we will not abandon Republika Srpska (the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and we will not impose sanctions on Russia,” he said, according to Danas.
“We won’t, as long as we are being led by the last free leader in Europe, the president of all Serbs, Aleksandar Vučić,” he added.
Vučić himself offered more measured comments in a joint press conference with the EU ambassador Emmanuel Joffre, saying that the EU’s pressure on Serbia will “continue to see-saw, one time it will be sanctions on Russia, another time it will be Kosovo”.
“But our task is to be strong and committed to reforms. We shall continue to work on our European path, perhaps we’ll be able to change something, perhaps not,” Serbia’s president also said.
