FM to EU: There'll be no progress? Well, there needn't be

FM to EU: There'll be no progress? Well, there needn't be

The harsh words and tensions over Pristina's moves concerning the Trepca mining basin in Kosovo have died down, but there has been no progress after the latest round of the technical Kosovo dialogue in Brussels this week.

The two sides this time failed to agree on recognizing university diplomas.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that his country "will not react to pressure."

"They're a little disappointed now because we did not accept that agreement. They said we must accept it, otherwise there'll be no opening of (EU accession talks) chapters. And then we said, they needn't be opened. It's true that it is vitally important to us to move toward the EU, but we won't let anyone - let me not use some vernacular - humiliate us," Dacic said on Friday.

According to him, "Serbia's red lines remain the same":

"We're not stupid and we know well what they're doing. They want to lead us into time pressure and say that we must accept something, or there'll be no progress. Well there needn't be. You know what - we want to join the EU, but we cannot join the EU without a country. We are going to the EU like everyone else, respecting our state interests. We expect Brussels to understand that Serbia is no longer reacting to pressure as soon as somebody frowns."

The implementation of the Brussels agreement is an important item on Serbia's European agenda. The Serbian side is aware there will be no progress on the European path unless there is progress in the talks with the Kosovo Albanians.

"I don't think there is stagnation in the sense that nothing has been done. On the contrary, I think that Belgrade as a negotiating side has had a fairly constructive approach. I think that Pristina has not done much, at least when it comes to, and in particular regarding, the Community of Serb Municipalities," Jadranka Joksimovic, the Serbian minister without portfolio in charge of EU integration, said on Friday.

EU's representatives in Serbia remain buttoned up, and offer no assessment on whether the negotiations have been seriously undermined.

"The dialogue continues, the EU continues to play its role in it," EU Delegation head Michael Davenport said, also on Friday.

The Serbian side expects three more chapters in its EU accession negotiations to be opened by the end of the year: 5 (public procurement), and 25 and 26 (science, culture, and education).