BELGRADE POLITICIANS BELGRADE, Feb 25 (Hina) - An article the European Union's high representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, authored in the Montenegrin daily Vijesti last Friday elicited a series of
reactions among Belgrade's political circles. Stating there indeed was an idea to make one person both the president and the prime minister of the future community, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in Ivanjica, "Serbia will not accept a rotten compromise under which something connected artificially would be called a state." "A state is something that functions throughout a territory, has a common market and customs system, and sufficient mechanisms for integration into the EU," he said. Serbian Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic told the daily Glas Javnosti that Solana's current proposal would make the joint state "look like a Frankestein monster of economy as it is impossible to ad
BELGRADE, Feb 25 (Hina) - An article the European Union's high
representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier
Solana, authored in the Montenegrin daily Vijesti last Friday
elicited a series of reactions among Belgrade's political
circles.
Stating there indeed was an idea to make one person both the
president and the prime minister of the future community, Serbian
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in Ivanjica, "Serbia will not
accept a rotten compromise under which something connected
artificially would be called a state."
"A state is something that functions throughout a territory, has a
common market and customs system, and sufficient mechanisms for
integration into the EU," he said.
Serbian Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic told the daily Glas
Javnosti that Solana's current proposal would make the joint state
"look like a Frankestein monster of economy as it is impossible to
advocate a uniform market and free flow of goods and services
without uniform customs."
He sees two acceptable possibilities - creating a functional
federation with a uniform customs system, one currency, joint
access to the EU and harmonised regulations, or to make Serbia and
Montenegro two economically separate states.
The governor of the Yugoslav central bank, Mladjan Dinkic,
considers Solana's unofficial proposal unacceptable. Solana
started with the wrong assumption that Serbia wants to stay in some
form of community with Montenegro at any cost, he told Glas
Javnosti.
Dinkic finds it especially absurd that according to the proposal,
Serbia should settle Montenegro's debts if the latter fails to
comply with its commitments, while simultaneously being unable to
control Montenegro's economic policy. "Serbia doesn't need a state
in which Montenegro will dominate it," he said.
According to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, talks on the
redefinition of the federation "are proceeding successfully." He
pointed, however, to "attempts to obstruct the negotiations"
within the ranks of the Serbian ruling coalition DOS, and said DOS
was waging an "anti-Montenegrin and anti-Yugoslav campaign."
Commenting on this statement, Serbian PM Djindjic told the Beta
news agency that such an assessment "represents a riddle which I
don't intend to solve."
(hina) ha