Dacic: EU integration Serbia's strategic commitment, we deserve progress

VIENNA - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Wednesday in Vienna EU integration was Serbia's strategic commitment and that the country deserved progress in that regard.

At a press conference with Austrian FM Alexander Schallenberg, Dacic said establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities was a precondition for further implementation of an EU proposal on normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations.

Serbia expects the Community to be established, Dacic said, but expressed the concern that Pristina would not meet its commitments.

He noted that the obligation to form the Community was a part of the Brussels Agreement, signed ten years ago, but remained unfulfilled.

He noted that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had invested great efforts in normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations while also succeeding in preserving Serbian national and state interests.

"The precondition for any further implementation of the European proposal is the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities," Dacic said, adding that Serbia agreed to implement the proposal up to its clearly stated red lines, which were that there was no recognition of the so-called Kosovo or a UN seat for Pristina.

Dacic noted that he expected the EU to know how to appreciate Belgrade's constructiveness and to open new clusters in accession talks with Serbia.

"Serbia deserves progress in EU integration and opening of clusters. When, if not now?" Dacic said.

He also noted that Serbia respected the principles of international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, including Ukraine, but added that Belgrade was not imposing sanctions on Russia for the sake of its own interests, including protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"It is true that Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Russia, but it is also true that the volume of Serbia-Russia trade has declined, while some Western countries that actually have imposed sanctions on Russia have increased their trade with the country," Dacic said.

Previously, Schallenberg said Austria expected Serbia to align its foreign policy with the EU in terms of the Russia sanctions.

Explaining the difference between the situation in Kosovo-Metohija and the situation in Ukraine, Schallenberg made the claim that "genocide" had taken place in Kosovo-Metohija in the 1990s.

In response, Dacic said 40,000 Serbs had lived in Pristina before the 1990s, while now there were "only about a hundred of them" in the city.

"What kind of genocide is that when there are fewer of us, alleged perpetrators of genocide, than those who outnumber us by ten times?" Dacic asked.