Deputy PM believes “deal with Priština will be reached”

BELGRADE Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Suzana Grubjesic believes that an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina will be reached. She said that Serbia was fully determined to reach an agreement and find a permanent solution. Deputy PM believes “deal with Pristina will be reached” “We are already paying the price for a years-long indecisiveness and sweeping problems under the rug,” Grubjesic said when asked what the price of a failure to reach an agreement with Pristina would be. She told daily Danas that the Serbian government had started a political dialogue with representatives of Kosovo authorities with an honest wish to reach an agreement and that it had not changed its stance. “The URS (United Regions of Serbia) has supported the Serbian government’s efforts and intention since the beginning to reach an acceptable solution that will be possible to be implemented in the field. We do not have a dilemma that it is important for Serbia to move forward, to stop playing the role of eternal Calimero and we have reiterated it several times. There is neither time nor room anymore for the policy that advocates that we should wait for some better time to solve the Kosovo issue,” the deputy PM stressed. She added that there were no differences in the ruling coalition when it came to the continuation of the dialogue with Pristina and that such conclusion had been unanimously made at a government session. Grubjesic said that no day was a D-Day but that the European Council’s conclusions were clear – that there would be no EU accession talks with Serbia without visible and permanent progress in relations with Pristina. “Visible progress has already been made because the government is implementing all agreements from the so-called technical dialogue and it is looking for a solution to a decades-long problem through the political dialogue,” she added. When asked if it was possible to get a “substitute” for the EU accession talks date in June if Serbia did not get the exact date, Grubjesic said she would not rule out a “consolation bureaucratic prize”. “But we as a society need a clear perspective and a chance to reform and modernize ourselves through the accession talks, just like other countries did before us,” she told the daily. The deputy PM said that if Serbia did not get the date in June, it could get it at the end of the year in the best case scenario but that it was realistic to expect that the process would be postponed for 2014. Suzana Grubjesic (Beta, file) Danas Tanjug

Deputy PM believes “deal with Priština will be reached”

“We are already paying the price for a years-long indecisiveness and sweeping problems under the rug,” Grubješić said when asked what the price of a failure to reach an agreement with Priština would be.

She told daily Danas that the Serbian government had started a political dialogue with representatives of Kosovo authorities with an honest wish to reach an agreement and that it had not changed its stance.

“The URS (United Regions of Serbia) has supported the Serbian government’s efforts and intention since the beginning to reach an acceptable solution that will be possible to be implemented in the field. We do not have a dilemma that it is important for Serbia to move forward, to stop playing the role of eternal Calimero and we have reiterated it several times. There is neither time nor room anymore for the policy that advocates that we should wait for some better time to solve the Kosovo issue,” the deputy PM stressed.

She added that there were no differences in the ruling coalition when it came to the continuation of the dialogue with Priština and that such conclusion had been unanimously made at a government session.

Grubješić said that no day was a D-Day but that the European Council’s conclusions were clear – that there would be no EU accession talks with Serbia without visible and permanent progress in relations with Priština.

“Visible progress has already been made because the government is implementing all agreements from the so-called technical dialogue and it is looking for a solution to a decades-long problem through the political dialogue,” she added.

When asked if it was possible to get a “substitute” for the EU accession talks date in June if Serbia did not get the exact date, Grubješić said she would not rule out a “consolation bureaucratic prize”.

“But we as a society need a clear perspective and a chance to reform and modernize ourselves through the accession talks, just like other countries did before us,” she told the daily.

The deputy PM said that if Serbia did not get the date in June, it could get it at the end of the year in the best case scenario but that it was realistic to expect that the process would be postponed for 2014.