Picula: No EU membership for Serbia without recognizing Kosovo, arrest Radojcic

Serbia will not be able to join the EU without recognizing Kosovo as a state and without giving up the “Serbian world”, said the European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula. He stressed that Belgrade must cooperate in the arrest of the terrorist Milan Radojcic, who claimed responsibility for the attack on September 24, 2023, in Banjska i Zvecan.

“Without full normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, there will be no integration into the EU. The integration of both countries into the great European family is closely linked to the dialogue, which must end with a legally binding comprehensive agreement on the normalization of relations between the two states”, he said in an interview for Jutarnji List, The Geopost reports.

Although the dialogue was renewed in 2023, he said that “instead of gaining momentum, it came to a real series of crises, the most serious of which was the attack by Serbian paramilitary forces in northern Kosovo”.

Picula said that the attack by the terrorist group led by Milan Radoićić in Banjska represents a serious violation of peace in Kosovo.

“We have demanded that Belgrade’s reports on the attackers in Banjska be one of the criteria for a full assessment of the situation in Serbia and Belgrade’s ability to walk on the European path. The EU Office in Kosovo has also, I think, recently told the authorities in Belgrade that it expects the arrest and prosecution of those who carried out the attack in Banjska, who are in Serbia, to be soon. Unfortunately, Belgrade continues to ignore requests to address this issue. I think that here we are dealing with obstruction of the expected judicial process and it is very likely that this is happening on the order of the head of state”, he said.

/The Geopost