Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen said in Belgrade on Wednesday that Serbia has to solve all open border issues before becoming a member of the European Union.

“We all know that candidates have to complete their homework and I am appealing for understanding that the Union must insist that open bilateral issues, the question of borders have to be resolved before accession,” Van der Bellen said, adding that the EU has experienced things it does not want to repeat as in the cases of Cyprus and Slovenia and Croatia.  

He said that official Vienna will take a favorable view of any peaceful solution for the Kosovo issue agreed by Belgrade and Pristina.

“If there is a peaceful, solution agreed by Belgrade and Pristina we will view it very favorably. The accent is on a peaceful solution by agreement,” Van der Bellen said after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.  

The Serbian president said that he was told by his Austrian counterpart that the EU has internal problems and cannot afford to import new problems which means that a solution to the Kosovo problem is one of the conditions for Serbia’s accession to the Union.

“One of the conditions for Serbia to become an EU member is for Belgrade and Pristina to solve their problems. No one can guarantee if we will succeed in that despite the will we have shown to reach a compromise solution but we will try,” Vucic said.  

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