Brussels welcomes PM's "constructive approach"

Brussels welcomes PM's "constructive approach"

"We welcome the attention that the Serbian government attaches to this issue and appreciate the constructive approach that the Prime Minister Vučić announced," Stano said in a media briefing.

Vučić told a press conference today that Serbia would not give additional subsidies to local businesses to increase exports to Russia after the country had introduced a ban on imports of food products from the EU as an answer to European sanctions against it.

“We will respect the recommendations we received from the EU,” Vučić told reporters, stressing at the same time that Serbia would not impose sanctions against Russia.

Stano reiterated the conclusions of the August 15 meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which stated that "in order to ensure the unity of the international community and to uphold international law, the European Union expects third and candidate countries to refrain from measures which are aimed at exploiting new trading opportunities arising from the introduction of these (Russian) measures (banning imports of certain EU products)".

The position adopted by the foreign ministers of the EU member countries on Friday last week is very clear and it remains in force, Stano told reporters.

Vučić's statement that Serbia will abide by European Union recommendations and that it will not encourage food exports to Russia is commendable, an EU official who wished to remain anonymous told Tanjug earlier in the day.

However, an official position of the European Commission will only be formulated after an insight has been made into the entire press conference held by Vučić, and his words analyzed, the official said.