EU, US Piling Pressure on Serbia to Accept Kosovo Plan, Vucic Says

President Aleksandar Vucic told media on Monday evening that representatives of the EU and US told him that if Serbia does not accept the so-called Franco-German proposal for future relations with Kosovo, its European Union integration process will be halted and investments will be blocked.

Vucic said he was told that "you must accept this plan, and if you do not accept it … you will face, number one, the interruption of the European integration process; number two… the stoppage and withdrawal of investments; and number three, comprehensive measures in the political and economic sense that will cause great damage to the Republic of Serbia".

In his speech on Monday evening, Vucic said that he could have responded by saying, "get out, we're not going to talk about anything". But he said that would have meant "there will be consequences".

"It would be a matter of weeks before the visa-free regime we have with the European Union would be abolished … the second thing that would happen to us would be that there would be no more investments, then the withdrawal of investments from Serbia," he added.

Vucic made his statement after meeting EU and US representative son Friday. The EU's special representative for Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, told media in Belgrade on Friday that he and his EU and US colleagues felt "encouraged" after the meeting.

However, former Serbian President Boris Tadic, head of the non-parliamentary opposition Social Democratic Party, said after Vucic's speech that the "blackmail being exerted on Serbia clearly shows that under this government, Serbia is a completely humiliated country".

Vucic did not give more details about the Franco-German proposal, which has never been made public in full.

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