Đurić: EU's Apostolova rendered the Dialogue pointless

The fact that the Head of the EU Office in Pristina, Natalia Apostolova, supported the Pristina platform, means that she also supports UDI Kosovo's aspiration for independence, and thus she directly sided with Pristina and rendered the whole process of dialogue pointless, stated the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić.

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić on Thursday reacted to a statement made by head of the EU Office in Pristina Natalia Apostolova.

“The fact that Apostolova supported Pristina’s platform means that she provided support for Kosovo's aspiration to independence, without it being agreed with anyone, without it being the outcome of the Dialogue, and without it being something that could be ever be considered as part of a platform”, Đurić told the reporters in Belgrade.

Thus, he says, she directly sided with Pristina, setting a limit to what could be achieved in the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, rendered the whole process of Dialogue meaningless.

“All the worse for the Dialogue if this is the position held by the EU. Then all is meaningless. Why should we continue to hold discussions, if the EU’s position beforehand is that Serbia would accept the independence of Kosovo?" said Đurić.

Apostolova said earlier in the day that Pristina "should do more to convince the states that did not recognize Kosovo's independence to do so in the near future."

Responding to the statement, Đurić said that Serbia will not accept Kosovo's independence recalling that Dialogue does not mean taking a dictation, but instead implies a compromise, and that it takes two.

“This statement represents a direct blow to the negotiating process. She unambiguously abandoned and assaulted the principle of status neutrality by inviting EU member states that have not recognized Kosovo's independence to do so. This makes it impossible for us to talk, it is impossible to create any viable solution,” Đurić said.

He stated that President Aleksandar Vucic turned out to be right when he spoke about the Community of Serbian Municipalities 40 days ago, and said that Pristina would not do anything about it.

“I remember the enthusiastic claims made by the representatives of the international community and some Albanians, that they will do something about the CSM. But what turned out to be true was what Enver Hoxhaj, Blerim Shala and others said openly and publicly, as official representatives of Pristina, that they have no intention of setting up the CSM before the so-called Kosovo has become an independent UN member state,” Đuric said, adding, “This will never happen. At the same time, they have the obligation to set up the Community.”

Đurić noted the EU’s silence on this issue, since we did not hear Apostolova saying anything about the statements made by Shala, linking the Community to the non-existent story about Kosovo's membership in the UN. Instead, we heard talks about the support of the Kosovo platform stating that the dialogue should result in independence.

“It is obvious that they are trying in a very transparent and shameful way to blackmail Serbia, and probably also those with whom they negotiated,” Đurić said.

According to him, Kosovo becoming a member of the UN, let alone linking the issue of Kosovo's membership in the UN to the issue of setting up the CSM, cannot be found in any of the documents.

“That will never happen and they can go on writing love letters to each other all day long”, Đurić said.

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija pointed out that Serbia is seriously taking note of how individual states behave towards us in terms of Kosovo and Metohija, that we are marking and remembering it.

“You cannot be truly committed to normalizing relations and to reconciliation, if, on the other hand, you try to get things done under the table, to get them to suit your own needs, without the parties agreeing on that,” Đurić said.