Head of Serbian Foreign Service Ivan Mrkic says of the negative outcome of the mammoth-long discussions in Brussels: "There is still scope to arrive at a compromise. We won't be giving up on either Europe or Kosovo".
The Foreign Minister, who was on the Serbian delegation to the dramatic Brussels talks, despite their inconclusive outcome, did not rule out the possibility of an agreement being eventually reached, but pointed out that the chances for it to happen at the moment were very thin, indeed.
Immediately upon the return of the State Delegation to Belgrade, Minister Mrkic shared with "Novosti" his assessment of Serbia's current position with regard to the settlement of the Kosovo problem and its further European integration process.

Has the deal between Belgrade and Pristina foundered for good or is there a window of opportunity to come to a compromise?

- There is still an opportunity for a compromise, though the reasons for an optimistic option are, by and large, fragile.

What are the chances now for Serbia to be named in June the date for opening its accession negotiations with the EU?

- We'll see what the EU Member States are going to say, but we feel that short of an agreement with Pristina, the European Commission won't make a positive recommendation that Serbia be given this June a date for the opening of EU accession talks.

What will be the further strategy of the top state leadership on two most important national objectives: defence of Kosovo and European integration?

- The strategy remains the same, i.e. we won't give up on either European integration or on our Kosovo and Metohija.