"Serbia under no obligation, but should join sanctions"

"Serbia under no obligation, but should join sanctions"

BERLIN -- Germany "does not agree with the European Commission's position that Serbia, as a candidate, has a legal obligation to introduce sanctions against Russia."

"Serbia today does not have a legal obligation to take EU's positions," the German daily Handelsblatt has quoted Maria Bohmer, a ministry of state at the German Foreign Ministry.

She, however, added that Serbia "cannot postpone moving closer to EU's foreign policy positions until the day of its possible acceptance to the EU," and that it was Serbia's responsibility to, in this matter, "lay down the guidelines in a timely manner."

The newspaper noted that EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn recently said Serbia "must impose sanctions on Russia" because it "undertook a legal obligation."

Bohmer was further quoted as saying that Serbia "with its membership application made a clear determination to respect and promote EU's values and undertook an obligation to, during the accession process, gradually align its policy toward third countries with EU's policy" - and that the German government "would welcome it if Serbia joined the sanctions against Russia."

Opposition Left Party's international relations spokesperson Sevim Dagdelen, however, strongly criticized Bohmer's statement.

"While the German government has correctly concluded that Serbia does not have an obligation to join EU's sanctions against Russia, it is at the same time exerting the greatest possible political pressure to make Serbia succumb," she told the daily.

This member of Germany's parliament added that "it cannot be good" if the intention is to degrade Serbia to the status of EU's vassal state that...