Brussels agreement needs "new annex," says president

Brussels agreement needs "new annex," says president

“They replied that it is about (the creation) Kosovo defense forces, and I asked who they were defending themselves from," Nikolić said.

“Then I observed that, if defense forces are being created, then they should also be created in the north of Kosovo and that, just like with the agreement on the police, an agreement should be reached that their composition reflects the composition of the population,” he said.

Nikolić said that a new annex to the Brussels agreement is necessary and it will be a topic of the EU-facilitated talks between Belgrade and Priština due to resume in Brussels.

“The essence is that if Priština is making their own army, the Serbs in northern Kosovo should get theirs, too” he said.

Nikolić said that Serbia has received clear assurances that the so-called Kosovo Armed Forces, which will be formed in two to three years, will never set their foot in the Kosovo north.

Nikolić once again stressed that Serbia will not recognize Kosovo’s independence, but it is preparing to regulate by law a fundamental autonomy for Kosovo and Metohija, which is its constitutional obligation and it is allowed to do so under UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Nikolić said that Serbia will not recognize Kosovo’s independence "even if the EU demands that."

“It is the position taken by the president of the country, but also the government,” he said, adding that the new government, when it is formed, will certainly say its stance on the issue.

If the EU’s final requirement is that Serbia has to give up a part of its own territory, then it means that they do not want us, the Serbian president said.

Nikolić said that Serbia will never give up on the referendum as a way of decision-making, "regarding not only Kosovo, but also Serbia’s membership of NATO."

Speaking about the dialogue with the authorities in Priština, Nikolić said that it will not be easy to reach an agreement in the field of justice.

He expressed the view that the Serb community in Kosovo municipalities need to have a basic court that will deal with disputes between its citizens and that the proposal for the jurisdiction of this court to include seven municipalities - three with a majority Albanian and four with a majority Serb population – "is not a good idea."

“A good relationship cannot be based on such an idea. It is a bit the same as bringing northern Kosovo under Priština's administration, which certainly is not what the people in the north want,” said the Serbian president.

Ukraine

A "Ukrainian scenario" is not possible in Serbia, and after the early parliamentary elections, which are under preparation in a regular fashion, an excuse for such a scenario will also be impossible to find, Nikolić told RTS.

Commenting on the crisis in Ukraine, he said that "a change of power has occurred in the country in a way that is unacceptable to democratic and civilized society."

"Spurred by an idea of their own or of someone else, a group of people in Ukraine has changed the course of things," President Nikolić said.

"Changes of power have occurred in many countries over the past several years in ways that are not constitutional, not democratic and not acceptable. I visited many of those countries before the changes and today I would not be able to recognize those countries," the Serbian president said.

Many politicians in Serbia speak about scenarios named after some countries or cities, but that talk is not coming from those who will be in power, but from "those who will not," Nikolić added.

"We in Serbia have shown that everything is possible when some people lose their heads," Nikolić said, recalling the mass demonstrations against Slobodan Milošević's regime on March 9, 1991, and October 5, 2000.

"I would not like to see a repeat of the Belgrade scenario," Nikolić said, adding that a Ukrainian scenario is not possible in today's Serbia.

After these elections, which are under preparation in a regular fashion, finding an excuse for something like that will not be possible, and even if a reason was found, a decision to commit a coup against the constitutional order would not be an easy one, regardless of whether there is incitement to do so, the Serbian president concluded.

Asked if he regrets the decision to decorate Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in June 2013 with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Serbia for contributing to the development and strengthening of peaceful cooperation and friendly ties between Serbia and Ukraine, Nikolić said that he does not see where Yanukovych's mistake was.

"I am certain that I would decorate any Ukrainian president who does not recognize Kosovo's independence with an order of Serbia if that could prevent further recognitions," President Nikolić said.