Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Thursday Serbia could not agree with the request to shut down its institutions in northern Kosovo, regardless of the possibility that this year it might not be granted the status of candidate country for EU membership and a date for the start of its EU entry negotiations.
Tadic said in a statement published on the official website of the Serbian President, that his country would continue to implement its policy of European integration and that nobody can deprive Serbia of this right.
He stressed that Serbia would not abandon its people in Kosovo but that it also would not give up on European integration processes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday after talks with Tadic that Germany wanted Serbia within the EU, but that it also expected Serbia to make progress in a dialogue with Kosovo. Merkel also asked that EULEX mission be enabled to continue its work in Kosovo and that parallel structures in northern Kosovo be abolished.
