Nikolic: KiM elections pose a challenge

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said in a meeting with British Minister for Europe David Lidington on Monday that the government of Serbia will take a joint stance on whether to invite Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) to vote in the June 8 elections, considering the questionable conditions under which the citizens would vote and what they would gain from it.

Lidington voiced the opinion that the Serbs should participate in the upcoming KiM elections in order to achieve democratic legitimacy and the capacity to engage with the international community, the president's press service released.
"We have a great responsibility to the international community but primarily to the Serbs in the Province. We will never abandon them,” said Nikolic, adding that the elections for the Kosovo parliament pose a major challenge.

Lidington noted that Serbia made an incredibly fast progress towards the European Union and achieved much in the dialogue with Pristina, and Nikolic said that Serbia is rapidly progressing towards full EU membership and working on the normalization of relations with Pristina.
"We are strongly committed to the European path, primarily so that the citizens of Serbia would have a better life in a well-regulated state,” Serbian president stressed, adding that, unfortunately, many of the EU rules have not been properly implemented and that the European Union has in a way been blamed for this.

One of those bad examples is the plundering privatization that devastated Serbian economy and left a great number of people jobless, Nikolic pointed out.

Commenting on the catastrophic floods that hit Serbia, Nikolic emphasized that Great Britain's assistance in supporting the flood relief efforts is highly...