Olli Ilmari Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, yesterday stated that Serbia should try and establish good neighborly relations with Kosovo.

When he was asked by a German daily, if Serbia could join the EU and not recognize Kosovo, Rehn said that all EU candidates “are bound to good neighborly relations.”

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica reacted to Rehn’s statement calling it EU’s or Brussels’ official position on Kosovo. Kostunica said, “By signing Solana’s agreement, Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s independence, and commits to working with this false state.”

Kostunica stressed that since such an agreement with the EU was unconstitutional and contained a concealed plan to dismember Serbia, no-one had the right to sign it on Serbia’s behalf. Mr. Prime Minister said, “Things that would be lost that way could never be regained, and as long as Serbia does not sign away a part of its territory, things are difficult but not lost.”

Commenting on the Article 135 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) guaranteed Serbia’s territorial integrity, Kostunica said, by recognizing Kosovo’s independence, those 17 EU members had rendered their signature on that agreement—and Article 135, in the process—null and void. He said, “The moment France, Great Britain and others recognized Kosovo’s independence, that provision ceased to exist.”

The Serbian Prime Minister pointed out that despite a thirty-year-old territorial dispute, Cyprus had still been accepted into the EU as an intact entity, and that Serbia expected nothing less for itself.