“Serbia must initiate and complete the process of determining responsibility for all those involved in Banjska and work for the permanent calming of tensions in Kosovo,” said the Croatian MEP
Banjska and establishing full responsibility for the perpetrators. This is what the European Parliament – as a headline – requires from Serbia, said the new Croatian Rapporteur for Serbia in the EP, Tonino Picula, in an interview for the “Beta” news agency. Picula, a social democrat and politician who is not at all soft-spoken regarding Serbia and its destabilizing role in the region, has harshly criticized Belgrade with the same ones as ours even now in the new role of rapporteur in the EP. Speaking about the paramilitary and terrorist attack in Banjska, Picula demanded full responsibility for the attack and bringing the perpetrators to justice – something that Belgrade has not done so far and that it has avoided at all costs.
“Serbia must initiate and complete the process of determining responsibility for all those involved in Banjska and work for the permanent calming of tensions in Kosovo”, said the Croatian MEP.
Speaking about the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, Picula said that it is a key process for both sides on their way to the EU. “I was among the first to welcome the Franco-German plan and the Ohrid Annex as a revitalization of the Berlin Process. Unfortunately, instead of going to the stage of negotiations for a final agreement, we entered a stage of new crises and escalation of violence”, said Picula. As to how the normalization of relations should be crystallized – at the final level – Picula was more vague this time.
He said that the conclusion should be that the parties, Kosovo and Serbia – should reach a point where they do not block each other’s EU membership: this point was already foreseen in the Brussels Agreement of 2013.
Asked by the Serbian news agency “Beta.rs” if Kosovo can become a member of the United Nations (UN), Picula said that this is dependent “on many factors”. “I think that to a large extent this is a complementary and parallel process whose conclusion depends on many factors. “There are already arrangements in the dialogue that Serbia is asked not to obstruct and block Kosovo’s membership in international organizations,” said Picula. The Croatian MEP has also had major criticisms of Belgrade on its internal and external level: from the non-alignment of its foreign and security policy with the European Union, i.e. the non-imposition of sanctions against the Russian Federation and internal policies in obligations of freedoms and democracy.
“The government in Serbia often demonstrates authoritarian and anti-European tendencies and we have clearly shown ourselves in a series of reports and resolutions in the EP”, said Tonino Picula.
“The already mentioned resolution for the last parliamentary elections is an example of our quick reaction”, he said. “Another question is how ready it is to accept all the criteria without which there is no EU membership. The EU is not only a common market, but also a community of values ​​and common communities of different risks,” he said. “It is not enough to only attract financial benefits from the EU, but also the democratic values ​​that are a prerequisite for membership. In the EU, not only stable economies are accepted, but also consolidated democratic societies. And in this field, the official Belgrade should do a lot to confirm what it officially declares”, emphasized the European Parliament reporter.
