"Deal with Pristina must guarantee Serbia will join EU"

"Deal with Pristina must guarantee Serbia will join EU"

Tanjug is reporting that "the British agency stated that Belgrade and Pristina have been committed to an EU-mediated dialogue to relations and resolve all outstanding issues between them in 2013, but little progress has been made since then."

It is impossible to have a final deal without the support of Germany, Russia, the US, or France, he also said, and added that "ampaigning for European Union parliamentary elections next May and the rise in popularity of right-wing political parties in Europe could dim the prospects of reaching a deal between Belgrade and Pristina," the agecny said.

“Do you think that citizens of those (EU) countries would like to hear about the prospects of Serbian membership (duringcampaign)?,” he said.

“No one in the region should be afraid of any agreement between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, the region will be more stable, stronger and economically more attractive,” he said.

Obviously, said Vucic, the Kosovo issue no longer concerns only Belgrade and Pristina but "the whole world" - and "that's why I've always been saying to the Albanians that it's better to reach a deal ourselves, because, no matter how hard and bad an agreement is for both sides, if we reach it among ourselves, it will be much better than not agreeing om anything, so that others agree over our backs."

Asked if there was a possibility that the delimitation deal would be back on the table, Vucic replied that nothing had been officially officially on the table, an that it could be discussed.

"I do not think that we are close to reaching any kind of agreement, but do I consider it to be healing, good and important to talk about everything and try and bring all our efforts into our work and actions, so that we can reach some kind of agreement, I am absolutely for it," said the president of Serbia.

"Sometimes I smile when I hear how people simplify things and say that the deal comes down to a line — I will give you three villages and I will get six villages (in return)," he said.

"If we were ever to reach a deal (with Pristina) it would have to be an overall deal that would include not only relations between us and the Albanians in Kosovo, but it would also have to include a resolution of our EU path and further economic progress," Vucic concluded.