Drecun: Progress made in Ohrid, traps of EU proposal avoided

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija Milovan Drecun said on Monday an Ohrid agreement on an implementation plan in the Belgrade-Pristina talks averted the danger of Belgrade recognising the false state of Kosovo in any way and agreeing to its UN membership.

On the other hand, the possibility of Belgrade being blamed for rejecting the plan was avoided, too, as were certain Western penalising measures against Serbia, Drecun told Pink TV.

"The French-German proposal, which was later renamed to European, is full of traps because it went beyond the framework of status neutrality and treated Kosovo as a state. It requested Serbia to agree to treat its southern province as a state, as an international legal subject, and that it do not oppose its membership in international organisations including the UN. Also, initially a de facto and then also a de iure recognition was requested," Drecun said.

He said no agreement, let alone a sustainable one, could be reached on such foundations.

There was also pressure from Pristina, which was refusing to establish a Community of Serb Municipalities, insisting that an agreement include a clause on mandatory mutual recognition, Drecun said.

"When you look at all that, progress was made in Ohrid - first of all, there was a realisation that an institutional framework needs to be formed to protect the Serbs through a Community of Serb Municipalities or, as the European plan says, through self-government for Serbs," Drecun said.