"Serbia to be good neighbor; EC needs to deal with Croatia"

"Serbia to be good neighbor; EC needs to deal with Croatia"

Speaking in Subotica, northern Serbia, Vulin stressed that Belgrade is now interested in what Brussels thinks about Croatia's "policy of conditioning."

"The Croatian policy is what it is, we will not pay attention to it. We will continue to be a good neighbor, making sure to preserve regional stability. We are interested in the position of the European Commission, whether it thinks that Serbia should become a member of the European community," Vulin told reporters.

Serbia's "policy and behavior" going forward will depend on that "answer" rather than on "whether Croatia will be curing some complex, and trying to draw attention away from something that is happening in that country."

"Croatia is a country in which no Cyrillic sign can survive on a police station. It is a country in which Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascists claim that Ustashism is becoming the official, legal policy," said Vulin, referencing the Ustasha regime of the WW2-era Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

According to the Serbian minister, "Croatia has enough of its own problems that it should focus on, instead of trying to create a problem in the region and in Serbia."

Noting that "many people in Europe who want to justify the policy of conditionality say there is 'enlargement fatigue in Europe'," Vulin said that "they must know that there is also 'conditionality and double standards policy fatigue' among Serbia's citizens."

Vulin then repeated that Serbia is trying to be a good neighbor, but that Croatia with its behavior shows it does not care about good neighborly policies and is "curing its complexes and frustrations by trying to do something bad to Serbia."

"It's impossible that the only goal of Croatia's foreign policy is to harm Serbia. Such a policy is wrong and such a policy will ultimately damage Croatia the most," concluded Vulin.