Media: Vucic receives blackmail, Belgrade won't accept it

Media: Vucic receives blackmail, Belgrade won't accept it

As the Belgrade media writes, Brussels diplomatic channels put pressure on Belgrade in order to make it play "by the rules dictated by Pristina". Serbia and President Vucic are asked to return to the dialogue, despite Pristina's failure to fulfill any of its obligations under the Brussels agreement.

"A scandalous request, forwarded by diplomatic channels, which in turn will allow Serbia to open its three (EU accession) negotiating chapters with the EU," a source told Srpski Telegraf.

As daily Vecernje Novosti writes, Belgrade will not agree to this blackmails even if the price is the freezing of the process of EU integration for a long time. This is, according to the newspaper, the firm position of Belgrade, after "indecent proposal" sent to the president.

Minister in charge of EU integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, told Vecernje Novosti that Serbia, in relation to the implemented activities in the field of the rule of law, chapters 23 and 24, realistically deserved the opening of at least three new chapters, out of a total of seven that it had fully prepared.

"The stick-and-carrot policy toward our negotiating process, in these circumstances, has become obsolete and I hope that the EU and the member states who have more political tact will treat Serbia as a serious candidate and a reliable partner and thus send a better messages to our citizens. We, certainly as a government, our work of reforms is being done by the reforms, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but without any doubt we are advancing and that should be recognized in a credible way by the EU and the member states," Joksimovic said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade Rasim Ljajic believes that "the old matrix continues - Brussels is not putting pressure on who it needs it, but on whoever it can."

"In this way, Brussels loses the status of a mediator in the dialogue and violates its own credibility," Ljajic said.

This, he adds, is not a matter of Pristina's failure to implement the agreements reached so far, but for political reasons raises new obstacles on the path of free trade that harm everyone. "Such moves call into question the entire dialogue and process of normalizing the relations between Serbs and Albanians," concluded Ljajic.