Vucic: EU has demonstrated anti-Serb attitude

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Thursday he would not travel to Tirana for a December 6 EU-Western Balkans summit following a decision by Pristina's PM Albin Kurti to name Serb Nenad Rasic as minister of communities and return.

Referring to Kurti as "terrorist scum", Vucic said the decision had gone down without a deserved condemnation by the EU and that the EU had demonstrated an anti-Serb attitude.

"The nomination of Rasic is a disgrace, to put it as mildly as I can. That man (Rasic) got less than one percent (of votes) in the elections, like Rada Trajkovic, who was on his electoral list. That shows they want an expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija. I am not sure there will be a meeting with the European commissioner (Oliver Varhelyi) tomorrow after what I said and the decisions we have made in the meantime," Vucic told Pink TV.

He said Kurti's move was a violation of not only the Brussels Agreement, but international law as well.

It is a violation of all democratic principles and norms under which someone is elected to a position or offered a position after garnering a large number of votes in elections, Vucic said, noting that positions should not be offered to someone with just one percent of votes.

"But they do not care, because that is in line with the interests of a European power and interests someone needs to implement, against the Serbs," Vucic noted.

As a result of the decision, no one from Serbia will be at the Tirana summit, Vucic said, announcing that he would speak about the matter in more detail on Saturday.

Srpska lista, a political organisation of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, has said Kurti's decision was unconstitutional and unsupported by Serb members of the provincial assembly.

The organisation said it would appeal the decision with the constitutional court.

"After continuous violations of the Brussels Agreement, Albin Kurti has demonstrated once again that he does not respect even Pristina's own legal acts in case they are in the interest of Serbs," Srpska lista said, noting that Rasic's nomination violated a constitutional provision under which a Serb who was not a member of the assembly could not be named minister without the consent of the majority of Serb assembly members.

Kurti did not seek that consent and Rasic does not have the support of our assembly members, Srpska lista said.

"The unconstitutional nomination of Nenad Rasic is a result of Albin Kurti's efforts to have by his side loyal Serbs for whom personal interests are above national interests but who have no support whatsoever among Kosovo-Metohija Serbs," it said in a statement.

After getting their mandates approved, the Srpska lista assembly members recently left in the legislative body following a decision by Serbs in the north of the province to abandon all of Pristina's institutions.