As a country already in talks to join the EU, Serbia specifically is “expected to align progressively” with EU foreign policy positions, he added.
By Lahav Harkov, JPOST
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 16:01
GERMAN FOREIGN Minister Heiko Maas (right) takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union from Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman during a symbolic handover in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin last week.
(photo credit: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/REUTERS)
Opening embassies in Jerusalem runs counter to Brussels’ expectations for Kosovo and Serbia, which seek to join the European Union, EU External Affairs Spokesman Peter Stano warned on Monday.
“Any steps that could call into question the EU’s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret,” Stano said.
The comments come days after Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti signed an economic agreement in the White House. The deal included full normalization of ties between Israel and the Muslim-majority Kosovo, along with both countries opening embassies in Jerusalem.
Stano said that “since Kosovo and Serbia identified EU accession or EU integration as their strategic priority, the EU expects both to act in line with this commitment, so the European perspective is not undermined.”
As a country already in talks to join the EU, Serbia specifically is “expected to align progressively” with EU foreign policy positions, he added.
Serbia has been in the process of accession to the EU since 2009 and is not expected to complete negotiations on the matter until 2025. Its non-recognition of Kosovo, which officially remains Serbia’s policy even after the agreement, has been a major obstacle to joining the EU, though five member states to not recognize Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, either.
An EU source said Serbia is also not in alignment with Brussels’ policies towards Russia, and that will likely be a greater challenge to its accession than its positions on Israel.
Kosovo is one of six Western Balkan countries the EU recognized in 2018 as a candidate for accession.
The EU was not informed in advance that Jerusalem and ties with Israel would be part of the Kosovo-Serbia agreement, Stano said.
A journalist asked if the sides were aware of what they had signs, likely in light of video showing Vu?i? looking confused and flipping through the pages of the agreement as US President Donald Trump mentioned both countries would open embassies in Jerusalem.
“It’s a good question for them,” Stano said.
Stano reiterated the EU policy, that it favors a negotiated two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, which would include Jerusalem as one of its final status issues.
“A way must be found through negotiations for Jerusalem to be capital of both states, Israel and Palestine,” he said.
The US and Guatemala are currently the only countries with embassies to Israel in Jerusalem, while the 87 others are in the Tel Aviv area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the agreements with Serbia and Kosovo on Friday, pointing out that Kosovo will be the first Muslim-majority country to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
“The circle of peace and recognition of Israel is expanding with more countries expected to join,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also expressed hope that more European countries will move their embassies to Jerusalem.
Israel did not recognize Kosovo in the past 12 years, citing Serbia’s opposition. The was partly due to avoiding setting a precedent for recognition of a Palestinian state.
Also over the weekend, Malawian president promised to open an embassy in Jerusalem. Israel and Malawi have diplomatic ties but not embassies. The Malawian embassy would be the first of an African country in Jerusalem.
Honduras has also said it would open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel should not care at all about the EU foreign policy diktats . The EU is a paper tiger , which has once again demonstrated its total incapacity to forge an united health policy with the covid pandemic . The EU is a paper tiger without any teeth when Turkey holds it by its nose while invading Lybia, trampling Cyprus maritime borders , threatening to unleash another migrants invasion from turkish refugees camps into Greece . Israel should show the EU that it does not tolerate any more its creeping hostile NGOs spreading subversion in Judea-Samaria . Israel should close the NGO’s offices and expels their european officers . Same should also apply to the Institut français du Proche Orient , a viper’s nest payed by Paris foreign office to spread disinformation about Jerusalem history .
@ Adam Dalgliesh: Although opening embassies in other than capital cities would give the EU the annoyance , the purpose of the embassy includes clandestine activity that would be harder for Israel in other cities. Your thoughts ….
@ Yehoshua:
Scores of millions is incorrect.
There are some fascinating aspects to the Serbia-Kosovo-Israel-United States deal that should be explored further. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, because it was a Serbian territory from 1913, when Turkey ceded it to Serbia, to 1998, when NATO troops seized it from Serbia. Yet they have signed an agreement with each other and the United States, in a Washington ceremony, to work toghether in some way .The reports I have seen up until now, haven’t explained exactly what was agreed on in the written text of the agreement. Trump said that the agreement included a pledge by both countries to open embassies in Jerusalem.
The action of the EU central organization to threaten the two countries with reprisals if they establish embassies in Jerusalem is outrageous, and demonstrates once again that the EU is an enemy, not a friend, of Israel.
Israel should retaliate by a) ordering the EU countries to remove their consulates from Jerusalem unless they convert them into Israeli embassies, b) end their meddling in Judea -Samarisa where they have funded illegal Arab settlements and protected protected from demolition. In their efforts to protect illegal Arab construction, their diplomats from the Jerusalem consulates, have physically assaulted Israeli soldiers.
b) Israel should close its embassies in European capitals and instead declare their consular offices in other cities that are not the capital of these countries to be their embassies to those countries. This should also be done in some other countries that maintain theie embassies in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem.
Honduras says is wants to move its embassy to Jerusalem, but wants Israel to “recipricate” by building an embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduas. Israel has no embassy in Honduras. Instead, Israel ‘s ambassador to Guatamala, which is a neightbor of Honduras, is also accredided to Honduras. But he lives in Guatamala’s capital (whatever that is), and rarely visits Honduras. Understanbibly, the Hondurans feel a bit dissed, and therefore have made their offer to relocate their embassy to Jeruselem. Amazingly, Israel has not responded to this request, although it would not be difficult for the Israeli foreign ministry to appoint an ambassador to Honduras, and rent some place for embassy in Tegucigalpa, where rents are cheap. As a result, there is still no Honduran embassy in Jerusalem, although the Honduans offered to build or rent one there more than a year ago.
Jews have a reputatation for being intelligent. But Israeli officials are so incredibly stupid and incompetent that it makes we wonder if that is true. A possible explanation: Intelligent Jews go into business, science, high tech, or even the rabbinate. The Jewish deadheads go into politics or apply for jobs in the civil service. Or maybe Jews are simply overachievers, and overachieving, while it can take you a long way in life, cannot give people wisdom or “the vision thing.”
And something else: The Germans deserve this. They deserve the total destruction of their nationhood. Sodom and Gomorrha. I just hate and detest them. You f** germans murdered my Grandparents in Stutthof. And made soap and lampshades from us. Go to hell. Become germanistan.
Make no mistake, the giant Heiko Maas is the best german foreign minister since von Ribbentrop. Lol :-D. Allah (lol!), and the Mufti from Jerusalem, and the Fuehrer would be proud of him and his boss Angela “Mutti” Merkel, because they transform the former “Aryan” country (lol, just a joke) into a Muslim country.
However, forgive them (Germans) because they don’t know what they do. As usual. As they never did. These leftist morons are finishing this country off. High taxes, muslim criminal immigration, total destruction of the economy, total censorship – there is only ONE way out of this mess: to leave this rotten country.
Am Yisrael chai and God bless America.
(I apologize for my bad English)
I don’t want to get Ted’s site censored, so I will just ask you readers to read my mind regarding where Stano and the EU can stuff their comments…
But let’s ask Stano if his EU demands Arabs and Turks grant similar rights regarding scores of millions of non-Arab and non-Turk peoples that both oppress, repress, suppress, forcibly Arabize or Turkify,–even outlawing those folks’ native cultures and languages–let alone sharing of sovereign rights or capitals. Their masked or unmasked antisemitism is inherited through their mothers’ milk–that’s how ingrained it has become over the millennia. I know a fitting Italian expression that’s the perfect answer for Europe–but that would also get Ted in trouble.