May 18 (SeeNews) - The recognition of Kosovo as an independent state cannot and will never be a condition for Serbia's membership in the EU, Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic told SeeNews on Friday following a EU-Western Balkans summit heralded as a historic display of unity in a troubled region.
“The condition to recognize the independence of Kosovo, which is an autonomous province of Serbia, has never been placed on the table as the condition for Serbia joining the EU. To say the least, it’s an impossible condition to be placed on the table because five members of the European Union did not recognize independent Kosovo and said will never recognize independent Kosovo,” Brnabic told a SeeNews reporter.
“That has never been on the table, and I guarantee that won’t ever be on the table for Serbia’s membership in the EU,” she added.
On Thursday, the leaders of the EU and of its member states, in consultation with their Western Balkans partners, adopted a joint declaration pledging to continue to support the countries of the region in their efforts to join the bloc. The declaration stresses on the need for connectivity in all dimensions: transport, energy, digital, economic and human, partnering in security, and fighting corruption and organised crime.
"The EU supports the Western Balkans partners pledge to continue strengthening good neighbourly relations, regional stability and mutual cooperation. This includes in particular finding and implementing definitive, inclusive and binding solutions for their bilateral disputes rooted in the legacy of the past and devoting additional efforts to reconciliation," the declaration reads.
No breakthrough in relations with the European Union could be achieved without a comprehensive normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and full implementation of the agreements, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said last month.
Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade in 2008 following years of strained relations between its majority ethnic Albanian population and Serbs. More than 100 countries have recognised Kosovo as a sovereign state. Serbia refuses to recognise the independence of its former southern province.
While the EU opened accession negotiations with Serbia in January 2014, Kosovo is still considered to be a potential candidate by the European Commission.
Speaking to the media after the summit, Brnabic also said that to think Serbia will recognize the independence of Kosovo is to say the least foolish.
"It will have to be a compromise, in which everyone will lose and everyone will win. Serbia is ready for compromise," she added.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that Pristina thus far has never actually stepped out of what was their politicians’ zone of comfort and said "yes, the compromise needs to be made". On the contrary, they’re basically calling for the final solution, which will be Serbia’s recognition of independent Kosovo. It can never happen. It is never going to happen,” Brnabic stressed.
Kosovo's EU integration minister Dhurata Hoxha told SeeNews on Thursday that the time has come for a long-lasting solution in the dialogue with Serbia.
"You have seen from the statements by the [Kosovo] president and the prime minister that Kosovo remains committed to dialogue," Hoxha told SeeNews at an event organised by the Vienna Economic Forum on the sidelines of the Sofia summit.
Now, it's time for this dialogue to yield results, she said.
"For us this long lasting solution, which will contribute to closing the chapter of the past but also to looking to the future so that we can all be members of the European Union as equal, is mutual recognition and membership or seat in the United Nations," Hoxha added.
"This will open the way for other EU member states [to acknowledge] that if two states with such a tragic history in the past came to terms and found a way for a peaceful agreement, then it is doable for other countries as well, and to recognize the progress that we have made together," Hoxha said.