Mesić: Croatia wants democratic Serbia

Stjepan Mesic says that Serbia is ready to become part of the EU, by acquiring EU standards. The Croatian president said that it was in the best interests of not only Serbian citizens, but Croatians too. Mesic: Croatia wants democratic Serbia In his speech at the Bruno Krajski Forum in Vienna, Mesic said he hoped that there would not be any dramatic changes to the EU enlargement policy, because that could have catastrophic consequences for Serbia, which had decided to follow the European path. “The political scene in Serbia after the recent elections has not become more stable, rather I seem to be able to detect elements of increased instability,” he said. In the wake of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, Mesic said that EU enlargement needed to continue, and to “include all the countries of South-Eastern Europe.” The Croatian president said that the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo had further complicated the situation in the region. "The break-up of the former Yugoslav federation has definitively come to an end, but no stable relations have been established within the new states or among them,” he pointed out. "By refusing to accept the fact that Kosovo has declared independence, Serbia merely shows its inability to accept reality, and by applying a kind of diluted Hallstein doctrine towards countries that have recognized Kosovo, it pushes itself towards half-isolation in international relations. That’s not good for Serbia or the region,” Mesic lamented. On the basis of that doctrine named after West German diplomat Walter Hallstein (1901 -1982), Bonne spent 15 years trying to block diplomatic relations with states that recognized East Germany. The first country West Germany applied Hallstein’s doctrine to was the former Yugoslavia. Mesic said that it was particularly bad that “there are hints coming from certain political circles in Serbia that point to a willingness to turn Serbs living in Kosovo into a tool whose ultimate aim would be Kosovo’s partition. That is out of the question, because it would definitively mark a prelude to very serious instability throughout the entire region,” Mesic said. The Croatian president also had a message for countries that refused to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral independence declaration. He said that the province had been a a constitutive element of the Yugoslav federation, and that, as such, it could not be compared with other secessionist movements. Mesic also said that it was essential that Zagreb and Belgrade tell Bosnian Croats and Serbs that Bosnia-Herzegovina was their homeland, with Sarajevo as their capital, and that they should try and solve their problems there. "We’ve done it, and we are still waiting for Serbia’s message,” Mesic added. He also said that the international community should tell everyone that Bosnia-Herzegovina needed to stay a united country, with three equal constitutive peoples, and that partition was out of the question. “Finally, we need the will to update the 1995 Dayton Accords in order to create the conditions needed for Bosnia-Herzegovina to function as a united state,” Mesic concluded. Stjepan Mesic (FoNet, archive)

Mesić: Croatia wants democratic Serbia

In his speech at the Bruno Krajski Forum in Vienna, Mesić said he hoped that there would not be any dramatic changes to the EU enlargement policy, because that could have catastrophic consequences for Serbia, which had decided to follow the European path.

“The political scene in Serbia after the recent elections has not become more stable, rather I seem to be able to detect elements of increased instability,” he said.

In the wake of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, Mesić said that EU enlargement needed to continue, and to “include all the countries of South-Eastern Europe.”

The Croatian president said that the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo had further complicated the situation in the region.

"The break-up of the former Yugoslav federation has definitively come to an end, but no stable relations have been established within the new states or among them,” he pointed out.

"By refusing to accept the fact that Kosovo has declared independence, Serbia merely shows its inability to accept reality, and by applying a kind of diluted Hallstein doctrine towards countries that have recognized Kosovo, it pushes itself towards half-isolation in international relations. That’s not good for Serbia or the region,” Mesić lamented.

On the basis of that doctrine named after West German diplomat Walter Hallstein (1901 -1982), Bonne spent 15 years trying to block diplomatic relations with states that recognized East Germany.

The first country West Germany applied Hallstein’s doctrine to was the former Yugoslavia.

Mesić said that it was particularly bad that “there are hints coming from certain political circles in Serbia that point to a willingness to turn Serbs living in Kosovo into a tool whose ultimate aim would be Kosovo’s partition. That is out of the question, because it would definitively mark a prelude to very serious instability throughout the entire region,” Mesić said.

The Croatian president also had a message for countries that refused to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral independence declaration. He said that the province had been a a constitutive element of the Yugoslav federation, and that, as such, it could not be compared with other secessionist movements.

Mesić also said that it was essential that Zagreb and Belgrade tell Bosnian Croats and Serbs that Bosnia-Herzegovina was their homeland, with Sarajevo as their capital, and that they should try and solve their problems there.

"We’ve done it, and we are still waiting for Serbia’s message,” Mesić added. He also said that the international community should tell everyone that Bosnia-Herzegovina needed to stay a united country, with three equal constitutive peoples, and that partition was out of the question.

“Finally, we need the will to update the 1995 Dayton Accords in order to create the conditions needed for Bosnia-Herzegovina to function as a united state,” Mesić concluded.