Dacic: CoE recommendation for so-called Kosovo violates Serbian interests

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Thursday a decision by the Committee on Political Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to accept a recommendation to admit the so-called Kosovo to the CoE was a direct violation of Serbia's interests and territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as a violation of the principles the CoE rested upon.

Speaking to Pink TV, Dacic said the PACE would debate the issue in April and give a recommendation to the CoE Committee of Ministers.

"Everything leads to the decision (in favour of the so-called Kosovo's admission) being made. It takes a two-thirds majority, which they have, and it is to be expected that it will happen in May," Dacic noted.

All this comes at a time when Pristina is not meeting any of its commitments, but instead blocking goods transports, banning the Serbian dinar and pushing the Kosovo-Metohija Serbs into a humanitarian disaster, he said.

Dacic said this was just one form of pressure Serbia had faced recently and added that developments in the UN Security Council over a session requested by Russia to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1999 NATO bombing of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were another factor of pressure.

He said the session, called again for Thursday, would probably not take place and was likely to be scheduled for a later date but that it was still not certain whether the issue would ever be put on the agenda of the UNSC.