"Priština's moves detrimental to dialogue"

"Priština's moves detrimental to dialogue"

"The Serbian government will persevere in the protection of interests of our people in Kosovo and Metohija and we made this very clear in the talks with our colleagues in Brussels," Đurić told reporters after the talks with associates of High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

After the meeting with Ashton's representatives headed by Fernando Gentile as the director for the Western Balkans at the European External Action Service, Đurić said that Belgrade cannot change the negative moves made in the past but it has the obligation and responsibility to affect the developments in the future.

"I believe that we can draw lessons from the experiences of major European nations who tackled similar problems but we also need cohesion and unity of the entire society so that we would be able to protect national interests of our people through joint efforts," he said.

Đurić underscored that Belgrade will continue supporting the search for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo problem despite the moves of 'parts of the Priština interim self-government institutions.'

"We strongly condemn the invasion of the property of displaced Serbs in the municipality of Štrpce," he said and added that the moves of the Kosovo Privatization Agency in the area have deeply disturbed the population.

Đurić said that Belgrade expects representatives of the international community to prevent Priština from bringing the dialogue on normalization of relations into an unfavourable atmosphere.

"Today, we are in a situation when we are discussing an increase of general political rights of Serbs in KiM and the moves of the Priština government following the staging of parliamentary elections blight the dialogue atmosphere," Đurić said at the conclusion of the one-day visit to Brussels.