EU accession negotiation green light not enough, we want a date – Serbian PM

Serbia requires an exact date to launch negotiations on EU accession, Prime Minister Ivica Dacic announced, according to Serbian news agency tanjug.rs.

“Regarding the green light that EU officials mention, we are not traffic policemen,” Dacic told journalists, June 10. “We are interested in the positive decision of the EU Council and that is what we expect. If we do not receive it I think that it would mean that we have been tricked.”

Dacic was incredulous after the EU announced that it would give Serbia a ‘green light’ for accession negotiations. He saw this as a vague and insubstantial gesture, maintaining that Serbia has fulfilled all the EU’s requirements, especially the normalization of its relationship with Kosovo, which has been an uphill struggle.

The Serbian Prim Minister also stressed that if all sides do not stick to the plan, he will run out of options for motivating the Serbian population in Northern Kosovo to uphold their agreement.

Earlier this year, Serbia reached an EU-mediated agreement with Kosovo which laid out the principles for normalizing relations between the two sides.

With this agreement Serbia has fulfilled all obligations set by the EU for receiving a date for the start of the accession negotiations.