Tadic: Serbia to Keep Up Kosovo Talks to Make It to EU

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (R) welcomes the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic (L) at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 28 February 2012. EPA/BGNES

Serbia must continue negotiating with Kosovo in order to join European Union, Serbian President Boris Tadic has declared while stressing that it would never change its position and recognize its former province.

"Serbia's position is crystal clear ... under no circumstances, not tomorrow and not in the future, will it recognize Kosovo," Tadic told a press conference a day after the EU formally recognized his country as a membership candidate, as cited by DPA.

The EU has brokered talks between Serbia and mostly Albanian Kosovo aimed at normalizing aspects of life that were disrupted by the 1999 war in the then-province and its secession in 2008.

Most Western powers recognized Kosovo, but Serbia refused accept the loss of its province.

Serbia agreed under pressure to "technical negotiations" with Kosovo - in a last-minute compromise paving the way for the EU to allow Serbia to take the step toward membership.

Before that, Tadic pointed out, Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal, culminating in 2011, gradually improved its ranking among EU nations.

Tadic said the EU candidacy recognition was 'not epochal, but big' for Serbia. 'It will be epochal when we complete the two remaining steps, when we acquire the date to open accession negotiations and when we become a part of EU,' he said.

But he hailed the EU decision as a 'signal that Serbia is on the right track.' 'The reforms we implemented in all domains of society won the approval from the EU, otherwise there would be no membership status for Serbia,' Tadic said.

The leader of the main opposition party, Tomislav Nikolic, also welcomed EU's promotion of Serbia, but warned that much more needed to be done, at a faster rate.

"As a Serbian, I am happy over the status," said Nikolic, whose Serbian Progressive Party leads in opinion surveys, two months at most before parliamentary and local polls are due.

But not all welcomed the EU decision. Nationalist opposition leaders have criticized Tadic's compromises over Kosovo, saying he traded heartland soil for the promise of EU membership.

Many Serbs became disillusioned with the EU after progress toward membership was made conditional upon concessions to Kosovo.

Former prime minister and head of the Democratic Party of Serbia Vojislav Kostunica warned the country that it had 'no reason to celebrate.'

"Who celebrates today? Is it the people, jobless and pauperized? Who aside from the authorities can celebrate, when we all know at what price the candidacy came?" Kostunica asked in a statement.

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