"Croatia and Bulgaria not behind blocking of Chapter 26"

"Croatia and Bulgaria not behind blocking of Chapter 26"

"Poor is the EU where Croatia has the last word," he remarked, noting that Brussels "should pay more attention to what is happening in Croatia."

"We are not naive. I simply cannot believe it that the mighty EU cannot influence Croatia and Bulgaria concerning the chapters. The values ​​of the Union are violated every day in Croatia, but let us wait and see if today something changes, in theory there is that possibility," said Dacic.

He added that while Serbia "has its own path towards the EU" the country "will not allow anyone to humiliate and insult it, or come up with conditions to open chapters."

"This is no longer about a gesture of a particular government - an anti-Serb atmosphere has been created. This Croatian government has not changed this attitude towards Serbia. Bulgaria also had some reservations concerning Chapter 26 (on culture and education) - but it is easy to write into your constitution that you con't have national minorities, as Bulgaria has done, and then talk about the rights of your minority in Serbia," Dacic said.

Commenting the meetings on Monday in Belgrade between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Serbia's state leadership, Dacic said that Belgrade should be "proud" of its regular communication with Moscow.

"If we have a problem in international forums, we always call Russia first. When we call Washington, they tell us they have invested much in the independence of Kosovo, and when we call Moscow, we get support," said the minister.

He said that the EU "must pay attention to its attractiveness" and added that Belgrade's commitment to European integration will never create an anti-Russian state out of Serbia.

Dacic also said that the talks with Lavrov did not touch on the status of the Russian humanitarian center in Serbia's southern town of Nis, nor on the forthcoming presidential elections in Serbia.

"It is nonsense that the center in Nis is a spy center. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will most likely visit Moscow on December 21 and will have enough time to discuss this with Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev," said Dacic.

Vucic late on Monday left Brussels after it became clear that Croatia had not given its consent to open Chapter 26. The prime minister will thus miss today's Serbia-EU intergovernmental conference that he was supposed to attend, where two other chapters are expected to be opened.