Kostunica: No need to sacrifice statehood for date

“Serbia is at a crossroads, but it can still choose the path to take,” Kostunica said at a meeting of the DSS main board in Kragujevac, central Serbia, where he presented a four-point rescue plan for the country. He pointed out that the main danger threatening Serbia comes from the European Union as "its firm intention and plan is to impose Kosovo independence on Serbia at any cost." "Serbia should not sacrifice its statehood in Kosovo for the sake of obtaining a date for the start of negotiations with the EU,” he said. "If the current government decides to abolish the Serbian state in Kosovo by dissolving the institutions of the state of Serbia in Kosovo, it would be the first case in history that a state resorted to an act of self-destruction such as the abolition of its statehood on the part of its own territory,” said the DSS leader and former prime minister of Serbia. According to Kostunica's rescue plan, the government must not under any circumstances abolish the Serbian statehood in Kosovo and needs to “tell the EU very clearly that Serbia is not a puppet state that will cede its territory in order to obtain a date.” The next thing it should do is to use in the most resolute manner all legal means available to prevent Vojvodina from pulling out of the constitutional framework and internationalizing the issue of the northern province's status. But before all that, Serbia needs to reconsider in a calm and reasoned way the damage that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement will inflict on its economy and should prevent an act on liberalization of trade in agricultural products from entering into force as it would completely destroy the Serbian economy, said Kostunica.