Slovak FM: Recognition of Kosovo not EU's condition

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said on Monday the opening of the negotiating chapters with the EU was "an earned and great day for Serbia."

Izvor: Beta

Monday, 14.12.2015.

16:24

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(Beta/AP, file)

Slovak FM: Recognition of Kosovo not EU's condition

Lajcak told reporters in Brussels today it was now necessary for everyone to focus on "the content and quality" of the integration process.

"It's not a race, not a question of how many chapters will be opened but how many we are ready to close and this is my message to the Serbian friends," Lajcak said, adding that Slovakia was "glad that Serbia has entered a new phase in relations with the EU."

Lajcak also said that Serbia should have opened the first chapters in the negotiations to join the EU "a long time ago" and criticized as "not serious" EU's approach of letting two years pass from the formal to the actual start of these talks.

"There has been too much unnecessary politics in that, but it is important that today we begin to have a serious and realistic process," said the Slovak official.

Lajcak "stressed that recognizing Kosovo as an independent state is not one of the conditions in the process of Serbia's negotiations with the EU," the Beta agency reported.

"As much as I've been reading, I found it nowhere that the recognition of Kosovo was one of the conditions in this process," he said. Lajcak's country, Slovakia, is one of five EU member-states that have not recognized the unilateral declaration of independence ethnic Albanians in Kosovo made in early 2008.

Lajcak also "stressed that normalization with Kosovo is needed and Slovakia supports that," adding that "a major opportunity for normalization is precisely the Brussels dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina."

"This dialogue should strengthen and this is most important," said Lajcak.

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