LDP party leader says Europe is priority

LDP party leader Cedomir Jovanovic has said Serbia should not idealize Europe. He added that Serbia should not give up on EU integration simply because it is held hostage by politicians who cannot complete that job. LDP party leader says Europe is priority With Europe or without it, Kosovo is going to be a problem Belgrade and Pristina will have to settle through a long process of emancipating mutual relations, Jovanovic told Tanjug. The solution is a division, but not a physical one, but a division of responsibility between Belgrade and Pristina, he stated. "We are interested in the limits of our responisibility and that of Pristina. Who is the most responsible for the life of Serbs in Kosovo? Belgrade, which has no influence on the life in Kosovo aside from a formal right, or Pristina, which is absolutely responsible, but without the right that we are taking away from it, so it does not have to assume responsibility for everything that is bad in Kosovo," said Jovanovic. He thinks the solution to northern Kosovo, whose Serb population does not wish to be integrated into Pristina institutions, lies in the Ahtisaari Plan. "It is the recipe for northern Kosovo, and not the barricades. Serbs separated by barricades and northern Kosovo under pressure from being cut off by the rest of Kosovo and Serbia itself, that is not the recipe," he stressed. The northern Kosovo issue is solved by changing the political climate in Belgrade, that is by avoiding "a rerun of the 90s policy, when Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia were pushed into war," he remarked. Serbia has to lead the northern Kosovo Serbs out of the year 1999, because they are still hostages of a policy ran from Belgrade, which continued to exist after Milosevic's era, Jovanovic stated. It is important to talk to Taci, he stressed, adding that Serbia should ask itself if it still made sense to insist on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and if the issue with regional representation was reason enough to condemn itself to isolation. "Serbia has no business in the 21st century if it is building its future on the resolution Milosevic used to mask the 1999 capitulation. Resolution 1244 is the agreement from Rambouillet, which we did not accept, so we were bombed because of it, only for it to be renamed in the end," Jovanovic concluded. (B92) Tanjug

LDP party leader says Europe is priority

With Europe or without it, Kosovo is going to be a problem Belgrade and Priština will have to settle through a long process of emancipating mutual relations, Jovanović told Tanjug.

The solution is a division, but not a physical one, but a division of responsibility between Belgrade and Priština, he stated.

"We are interested in the limits of our responisibility and that of Priština. Who is the most responsible for the life of Serbs in Kosovo? Belgrade, which has no influence on the life in Kosovo aside from a formal right, or Priština, which is absolutely responsible, but without the right that we are taking away from it, so it does not have to assume responsibility for everything that is bad in Kosovo," said Jovanović.

He thinks the solution to northern Kosovo, whose Serb population does not wish to be integrated into Priština institutions, lies in the Ahtisaari Plan.

"It is the recipe for northern Kosovo, and not the barricades. Serbs separated by barricades and northern Kosovo under pressure from being cut off by the rest of Kosovo and Serbia itself, that is not the recipe," he stressed.

The northern Kosovo issue is solved by changing the political climate in Belgrade, that is by avoiding "a rerun of the 90s policy, when Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia were pushed into war," he remarked.

Serbia has to lead the northern Kosovo Serbs out of the year 1999, because they are still hostages of a policy ran from Belgrade, which continued to exist after Milošević's era, Jovanović stated.

It is important to talk to Taci, he stressed, adding that Serbia should ask itself if it still made sense to insist on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and if the issue with regional representation was reason enough to condemn itself to isolation.

"Serbia has no business in the 21st century if it is building its future on the resolution Milošević used to mask the 1999 capitulation. Resolution 1244 is the agreement from Rambouillet, which we did not accept, so we were bombed because of it, only for it to be renamed in the end," Jovanović concluded.