Dacic walked out of Warsaw meeting "because of insults"

Dacic walked out of Warsaw meeting "because of insults"

The meeting in Poland brought together members of the Visegrad Group and of the so-called Western Balkans Six.

"Since (EU foreign policy chief Federica) Mogherini and other hosts failed to react to Hoxhaj, I said, 'if you can work without Serbia, do that', and left the gathering. I have no intention of listening to the lectures of those who committed crimes against Serbs," said Dacic.

Dacic said that he and Hoxhaj engaged had a strongly-worded exchange because Hoxhaj reacted to the Serbian foreign minister's address, when he said Kosovo cannot be presented as a state.

As for "the stories that Kosovo is going to the EU," the minister described this as "a mirage" for Pristina public's consumption, and added that "Serbia's European path is not the same as Kosovo's European path."

"The Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) which Kosovo has signed concerns a territory, not a state. That SAA has not been ratified by (EU) member-states, by the European Parliament, where Kosovo is marked properly with an asterisk and a footnote," Dacic said.

The Beta agency said that when asked to comment on a statement by Branko Ruzic, a vice-president of his SPS - "who said that Serbia will join the EU without Kosovo" - Dacic replied: "I think that neither he nor anyone else knows how and under which conditions Serbia will become an EU member."

According to the Tanjug agency, Ruzic told the Vienna-based newspaper Presse that Serbia "does not have to recognize Kosovo, but will become a full-fledged EU member with the exclusion of the territory of Kosovo."