Serbia Opposition Party Says Will Oppose EU Membership Until Brussels Rejects Kosovo

Kosovo cannot become a member of the European Union as Serbia considers the territory as its own, Velimir Ilic, the president of the New Serbia party, told Sputnik on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2020) Kosovo cannot become a member of the European Union as Serbia considers the territory as its own, Velimir Ilic, the president of the New Serbia party, told Sputnik on Friday.

Earlier this week, the EU and the Balkan six Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia � held a summit, where the latter committed to upholding "European values and principles" in the Zagreb Declaration. However, the final document triggered a backlash among some Balkan political parties that do not believe that their countries would ever join or benefit from joining the bloc.

"We cannot speak about six states, because we cannot count Kosovo as a Balkan country. For us, Kosovo is still part of Serbia and it will always be. Everyone who accepts Kosovo as an independent country cannot be an ally of Serbia," Ilic said.

According to the politician, witnessing the UK exiting from the EU and Italy possibly being very close to leaving the bloc, Serbia cannot think of the accession the same way as earlier. It is becoming clear that the EU cannot exist in this current form, he said.

"We cannot talk about joining in EU until they accept Kosovo as a part of Serbia," Ilic added.

On Thursday, Andrea Picchielli, a member of Italy's Lega party, in an interview with Sputnik also cast doubts regarding Serbia's accession to the EU along with Kosovo as an independent state.

The self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. The status of the territory remains disputed between Serbia and Kosovo's Albanian population. In a bid to facilitate a political settlement of the conflict, the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue was set up in 2011.