Belgrade: Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica yesterday said that Serbia should have signed the SAA long before the 18 EU countries recognized the unlawful independence of Kosovo.

Kostunica was speaking at the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, when he stated that. He said, the question Brussels should be asked now is why the SAA had not been signed earlier, before the Montenegrin referendum of 2006, which is when the negotiations with the EU were “halted by a unilateral and unfair decision of Brussels.”

Commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement yesterday, Kostunica said that the deal should have been signed earlier by saying that he agreed with this stance. He said, “Minister Lavrov is right. The SAA is now in a phase when the unilateral declaration of independence took place and when the initialed version of the agreement is contested – annulled by 18 [EU member] states that have recognized Kosovo’s unilateral independence.”

Kostunica said that the agreement has to be added to the parliament agenda, because the parliament adopted a resolution last December which explicitly says that every international agreement Serbia signs, the SAA in particular, has to be in the function of preserving the state’s integrity and territorial sovereignty. He said, the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), signed on Tuesday by his deputy in the caretaker government, Bozidar Delic “is not in the function of Serbia’s territorial integrity.”

Serbian Prime Minister accused President Boris Tadic’s Democrats (DS) of “trying hard to hide their shame behind other people’s words, the shame of signing the Solana agreement about Kosovo’s independence”, and said, “but they will not manage to fool Serbians”.