PM says it “would be irresponsible to stop EU integration”

BELGRADE -- Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić said Thursday that it would be irresponsible for Serbia to stop its EU integration process.

Ivica Dačić (Tanjug, file)

He added that the thesis, under which by giving up on EU entry Serbia could better defend Kosovo, was incorrect.

Answering questions asked by MPs of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) in the Serbian parliament, Dačić said in that he saw no chance for Serbia to pursue a successful foreign policy without having European integration as a major element of the policy.

“Nobody is preventing Serbia from defending its national and state interests the way it thinks it should,” he said, adding that he did not know of any way it can do that “without participating in the game.”

During a debate he had with DSS MP Slobodan Samardžić, the PM said that the coalition of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), of which the DSS was a member, had won in 2001 thanks to their policy of EU accession.

“Imagine a situation of tomorrow, with our children living in the only country in the region that is not part of the EU,” Dačić stressed.

Samardžić said that the prime minister had failed to respond to his question whether the Serbian parliament would debate on the further course of European integration.

“The fact you swim at full speed towards the EU does not mean that you see your goal clearly. You are fostering an illusion that you are approaching a certain goal, but the one does not exist,” he pointed out.

“You are behaving as if you do not know what the current enlargement policy pursued by the EU is. A lot has changed since 2001," he added.