Gori: Belgrade clearly marked the red lines in the dialogue

Italian Ambassador to Serbia Luca Gori said today that Serbia and President Aleksandar Vucic have a constructive and realistic approach to the dialogue with Pristina, and that Serbia has identified red lines in the negotiation process which it has clearly marked, but at the same time expressed its willingness to implement everything that was agreed upon.

Gori pointed out to Euronews Serbia that the dialogue process between Belgrade and Pristina is extremely important in order to enable stability in the entire region.

"I believe that the results achieved in Ohrid are important primarily because behind us are many months of unilateral moves with certain reactions that caused a lot of instability. There was a need to have a mechanism for articulating the dialogue, to enable the negotiations to be placed on a stable basically," Gori pointed out.

As he said, it is quite important for Serbia's European perspective because the normalization of relations with Pristina is one of the basic criteria for rapprochement with the EU. He also states that this is important for the economy because it sends a positive message to all companies that want to come to Serbia.

Asked whether the issue of Kosovo and the introduction of sanctions against Russia are the most important when it comes to Serbia's European path, Gori stated that the enlargement process has always been a path with two dimensions: the dimension of reform and the geopolitical dimension.

"Sometimes one would prevail, and sometimes the other. Now we are in a phase where the geopolitical component is important," said Gori.

Speaking about Serbia's harmonization with the EU's foreign policy, he said that some important steps were taken when Serbia voted in the UN General Assembly to condemn Russian aggression.

He adds that in Italy they see Serbia's European path as something that is inevitable, and that they consider Serbia a country that is historically, culturally and geographically European.

"We want that process to be completed in the shortest possible time and we are wondering how we can speed up the process and which instruments to use. On the one hand, there is Serbia, which has its own responsibilities, it needs to implement reforms, and on the other hand, we believe that the EU should also to be more specific in the proposal to integrate Serbia. I understand that there is frustration in Serbia and in the Balkans because of the prolonged process. It is certain that this has a negative effect on the pace of enlargement. If something is not seen on the horizon that is close, everything becomes a lot harder," the Italian ambassador said.