Belgrade: There should be a session of the parliament to give lawmakers a chance to ratify the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), demanded the Serb Radical Party (SRS) yesterday. Tomislav Nikolic, the deputy party leader called on Prime Minister Vojislav Koctunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) to join him in this initiative.

Signed Tuesday by Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Delic, the SAA has been endorsed by President Boris Tadic’s Democrats (DS) and G17 Plus, but has met with severe criticism from the ruling DSS and the opposition SRS.

Nikolic said the session should be held on Monday, “in order to demonstrate all the benefits of the agreement”, while skeptics will have a chance to point to those provisions of the deal that are “redrawing the borders of Serbia”. He said, “if the deal was any good, the DS would seek to have it ratified in parliament as soon as possible”.

“Agreements are dead papers until the people stand behind them. The citizens of Serbia would stand behind this agreement if the parliament were to ratify it with a majority of votes,” Nikolic said. He said that in his opinion, the SAA brings nothing good to the citizens of Serbia, guaranteeing neither closer ties with the EU, nor the organization’s desistance from supporting Kosovo’s independence.