Koštunica warns against "Solana's agreement"

PM Vojislav Kostunica has warned against any attempt to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. Kostunica said today that signing the SAA would be in the party interests of the coalition grouped around the Democratic Party (DS), but not in the interests of the Serbian nation and people. Kostunica warns against "Solana's agreement" "If Boris Tadic and the [League of Vojvodina Social Democrats leader Nenad] Canak, DS and G17 Plus coalition back [EU High Representative Javier] Solana's agreement to help the coalition in the elections, that might represent the party interests of Canak, the DS and G17 Plus, but Solana's agreement is certainly not in the interests of the Serbian nation and people," the prime minister said in a statement given to Tanjug. He said that people in Serbia wanted an answer to one simple question: does the SAA view Serbia as a whole, together with its province of Kosovo, or not? "We openly say that we believe Solana's agreement… is tantamount to an attempt at putting a signature on Kosovo's independence. There must be no bargaining over Kosovo, and there must be no signing of Solana's agreement unless it explicitly confirms in advance that the agreement refers to Serbia as a whole," Kostunica insisted. According to the prime minister, scaring the citizens with wide-scale propaganda on self-isolation was aimed at concealing the intentions to "recognize the first NATO state by signing Solana's agreement." "We also see that, all of a sudden, the government no longer has a technical mandate when Solana's agreement is at stake, and that it only had such a mandate when the energy arrangement with Russia was on the table," he pointed out. Vojislav Kostunica (FoNet, archive)

Koštunica warns against "Solana's agreement"

"If Boris Tadić and the [League of Vojvodina Social Democrats leader Nenad] Čanak, DS and G17 Plus coalition back [EU High Representative Javier] Solana's agreement to help the coalition in the elections, that might represent the party interests of Čanak, the DS and G17 Plus, but Solana's agreement is certainly not in the interests of the Serbian nation and people," the prime minister said in a statement given to Tanjug.

He said that people in Serbia wanted an answer to one simple question: does the SAA view Serbia as a whole, together with its province of Kosovo, or not?

"We openly say that we believe Solana's agreement… is tantamount to an attempt at putting a signature on Kosovo's independence. There must be no bargaining over Kosovo, and there must be no signing of Solana's agreement unless it explicitly confirms in advance that the agreement refers to Serbia as a whole," Koštunica insisted.

According to the prime minister, scaring the citizens with wide-scale propaganda on self-isolation was aimed at concealing the intentions to "recognize the first NATO state by signing Solana's agreement."

"We also see that, all of a sudden, the government no longer has a technical mandate when Solana's agreement is at stake, and that it only had such a mandate when the energy arrangement with Russia was on the table," he pointed out.