Inviting one of the conditions for serbia joining the e. U. Is that you signed a legally binding agreement on peaceful relations with kosovo which declared its independence in two thousand and eight youve never recognize that these talks come and go sometimes theyre on sometimes theyre off why should the e. U. Bother with all this feuding and bilateral disputes that you have with cost of oil have too much trouble for the launch. I think as much as our interest is to join the e. U. I think the enlargement to cover balkans is also in the news interest i think first and foremost European Union is of this project and its a successful one because we have for the first time in history a long term peace in europe are you saying that because they know you have made it clear havent they they cannot and will not import bilateral disputes junko deal because said it last year thats pretty clear isnt it because its clear theyre not going to point to a dispute with constable it is absolutely clear if you dont settle it that youre not going to get you know that its normal to me i think thats just natural thing to do i would ask that if i were the e. U. As well so youre not going to settle this any time soon youve admitted that yourself so theres not really no perspective for you joining in the foreseeable future i would one hundred percent disagree with you on that point because firstly the the soonest possible date for us to join the e. U. Is twenty twenty five so by twenty twenty five i think there is a possibility that we actually signed a long term normalization agreement with british really it doesnt look like it at the moment but im not saying that this will happen im saying that serbia is committed to it it doesnt depend on serbia alone depends also on prishtina as well as on other allies of ours so i think were going into that in the direction of the e. U. For me whats important is that we actually implement all the reforms so that as a society politically economically. We become fit for the e. U. Yeah but you say that i want to come on to those reforms so long a little bit because the e. U. Is far from happy with the state of your reforms but but last week my he loves i would also disagree with that phrase well growth will go through to tell well go directly into. India large one strategy the e. U. Clearly identified serbia and montenegro as frontrunners i would say that is far from being this. Disappointed from the run for answers but it is getting fed up with you and at the sophia summit in may and later in london there was a pretty lukewarm attitude to all six orcon countries looking to join the e. U. No mention of any timetable for accession and some pretty clear opposition from the french president emmanuel markram wasnt that clear opposition look lonely let me just say i do not think that you have the right to say that you use fed up with us i dont think its diplomatic but i dont think you can say that on behalf of the e. U. If look what you might not be said. Was fed up with us then we would not have any new chapter so point and we do have new chapters being constantly opened and that the trend is that we are going towards the e. U. Well thats not a role this is a president micro who said what weve seen over the past fifteen years is a path that has weakened europe every time we think of enlarging it and i dont think we do a service to the count of countries or ourselves by having a mechanism that in a way no longer has rules and keeps moving towards more enlargement and though that was hardly welcoming you with both the rosary and i agree with president mccrone one hundred percent i do not think that enlargement in the past was particularly successful i think not likely to be with you can i think that all lightly with you and i think that the consequence of that kind of accession to the e. U. Is that the country whose accessing the e. U. Is weaker because its economy cannot compete its agriculture cannot compete they suffer from a huge brain drain and the e. U. Gets weaker so why dont you. Your membership on hold stop taking the funds to sort out the bilateral problems with kosovo you know the other refer to them in our membership in four hundred how many fund how much money do you get from your you know youre getting hundreds of millions youre getting much less than that were getting pretty accession funds and the pretty exception funds are exactly smaller than for the funds that the e. U. Member states are getting believe given the virus in the two image just for the money thats and that is completely that is completely not right you really have any president youre president then you think you can sell interests if i can just say or you can have your interview with yourself if i can just Say Something firstly weve always said to our citizens that we cannot and will not look at towards the e. U. As a pot of money that the the better quality of life the jobs better salaries need to come from ourselves and the strength of our economy that we want to be part of the e. U. Because e. U. Is a piece project and we have shared values with the e. U. So if thats true why did president hu two to three years ago when he was Prime Minister make it clear when he told a meeting in tehran we are fed up with seminars we need some money from the e. U. Funds then youll see the smiles on our faces. That would be a clear indication that he was simply after the money would say that you took out the statement if its correct and i do not remember that it isnt correctable revolution on multiple news lately are the context if anything president for to as the Prime Minister repeated lee said e. U. Is not a pot of money for us we need to take of take care of our own economy our jobs our infrastructure the e. U. Is a different goal for serbia now whether were going to be ready by twenty twenty five to join the e. U. Is another question and i think if you ask me if the e. U. Said you can join to morrow id say no because were not ready which would which would mean that again we get in a large amount in which serbia would be worse off and europe would be worse so everybody can holler vote for ironworker stood in the reforms themselves when it comes when it comes to cost of a promise to you keep raising the bar going to you now say that any final deal will have to be comprehensive it will have to include among other things human rights minority rights Economic Cooperation learning each others language and cultural heritage. You settle this in a recent through to the house that raising the bar is going to take a long time twenty years at least why should the e. U. Wait around for a man who says the e. U. Will wait to transfer debt if it takes twenty years obviously we want to join the e. U. Who says that the e. U. Will wait around whos asking the e. U. To wait you are you continuing with your membership application and you but of course so you wanted to wait around but of course because we want to become members of the e. U. But i am more interested in the reforms once we implement the reforms the e. U. Will come as a natural call the consequence of these reforms if they want to wait for and thats fine if they dont want to wait around thats also fine to us that there will not change europe or not mind whether they wait around or that they will not change. Serbian policy is a little bit we are what we are doing in terms of the reforms we are doing first and foremost because of our own citizens and our businesses for the quality of life of citizens in serbia ok well lets talk about let me just tell the National Real use your detail understanding what the e. U. Is for us firstly the reforms in our e. U. Accession parth mean that we have strong stable economy that we have we implemented Structural Reforms that will lead to strong stable economy what about monetary rights press freedom things largely at the minute but about the first real reason if you let me finish ill come to that the second pillar is efficient transparent public and Public Administration the third pillar is the rule of law more stronger more independent but also more efficient and more accountable judiciary talk about press freedom one of the most glaring failures of your government has been your refusal to protect freedom of speech in february the council of europes Human Rights Commission has said the atmosphere in which journalists work in serbia appears to have deteriorated quite seriously especially with the smear campaigns against journalists with somebody or titians calling them traitors foreign agents and mercenaries you have denied that any of this is the case but europe isnt buying your denials is it. Well firstly i see that there is a freedom of media in serbia i see no smear campaigns again i just i see criticism of the president of myself of the government every single day in the media as it should be what about this as it means in a Democratic Society from mr let me give you an example Alexander Mcqueen of a senior official of your Ruling Progressive Party he labeled the head of the independent Journalists Association a voyage void in a and enemy of serbia because he made critical comments about the authorities is that acceptable is an enemy of serbia im not saying that its acceptable for your sake it doesnt happen well for one thing im saying that there is a Media Freedom and in serbia im saying that the there is many and theyre saying we as a risk in which journalists work in serbia appears to have deteriorated quite honestly not sort of these absolutely do not look very with that in serbia i think were makes it up listen in serbia. About ten years ago or a little bit over the over the when we actually had a democratically the macross tickle your hanted Political Party in power the members of the Ruling Coalition kicked physically kicked journalists. The if the so you think is untrue on another john threatened now theyre going after the Anti Corruption council so that media is completely politically influenced i think we have a lot to deal with in serbia and we are dealing with it and i think the situation is improving its by no means by no means worse than in last nights event last month an official from the Security Information Agency that marco resigned the bridge so the greatest threat to serbia of a foreign agents working in media nongovernmental agencies and opposition parties its an easy smear isnt it talk about foreign agents in the media when you have no evidence for that what it is absolutely ridiculous to quote one Public Servant at the conference where the president of serbia talked about threats and id talked about threats and you have the president and the Prime Minister talking about about threats which is migration terrorism Cyber Security and course when the thought here and no one is quoting that the actual official policy of serbia has never ever insert so you can immediately as you know not given this is all taken out of this regarding this just so that someone can take words of one single Public Servant promise that if only for the case in its latest report in april the european Commission Said the fact that no progress had been made to safeguard freedom of expression was a matter of increasing concern that was in april serbian or thora he said the commission need to provide active support to independent bodies human rights defenders and independent journalists and promptly react to and publicly condemn the threats against them so why dont you do what the commission asked you to of of done exactly the thing that the commission asked me to do and what i say you have and thank you so you have a lot. Lets see the Upcoming Group port thank you for that question actually in fact as the Prime Minister i said we all the media representatives talk to them about how what we can do to come up with a Credible Media strategy theyve asked me for me personally to run this the working group are actually in my cabinet in my team and not under the minister of culture and information that we have the working group. To work on the media strategy this is exactly what were doing right now with the support of the European Commission that is the european delegation in serbia. The calling of god in our stiff tongue the oil sea and the Region Embassy in serbia ok and this and also the medium of having or through to europe and this and theyre all getting all through to you or you will see in the next really in the upcoming early port and and all the other seventy three hours from asia where we see improvements there and well also of course really because we have in the meantime i was not going well by the resident if i can just not going well if you know its going really well really show ill tell you also the media representatives are that we have it called the nation body also under my cabinet as the Prime Minister we too will in parallel with media strategy work on the dissolving ad hoc issues that media have in serbia weve agreed to that as well we are doing that they meet once a month and are already resolving issues if you want to you know i was my government is the first government to actually implement the open data policy we have we have we are doing that together and like i mentioned earlier we have adopted the parliament has adopted law the law on the government which makes opening data in serbia i understand that earlier this year the palis a lot of europeans to me that you do understand i understand what youre saying but the disagrees with it and so does the council of europe and the Human Rights Commission who complained in his report earlier this year that things with regard to access to information are not going well the government is not implementing the recommendations of the commissioner for information of public importance and the parliament is not discussing his reports you want to continue down this road because theyre not buying your denials of this. Im not saying that these are denials the. So much work to be done and im saying i said i said yesterday. At the conference of Konrad Adenauer stiffed them i think if we look at our you integration in three key pillars economy Public Administration rule of law by far the most was done in the economy i would say in terms of Structural Reforms eighty five percent of the job has been done which is shown in the numbers that serbia has right now our g. D. P. Growth in this year was four point five percent our our employment coughed our. We are the World Leaders in the our attraction in terms of Public Administration reform public pub probably fifty percent of the job he has done still a long way to go in terms of the rule of law thirty percent has been done so we have a long long way to go you have a long way to go on the issue of war crimes as well but the e. U. Is still not satisfied with you perform well in you you are certainly not one hundred percent satisfied you are far less than one hundred pas and i would say that serbia by far is the best case example in the region of how to deal with the war crimes really value in january twenty sixth in the may twenty seventh in serbia have no formally appointed war crimes prosecutor and thats on for seventeen months and thats about was that was a way of showing your willingness to deal with this and seventeen month no interest that you cant you can absolutely disregard everything that serbia has been doing. With respect to the war crimes since two thousand since the last eight hundred years ok and the last of the un read out live in florida most of all other countries and according to the great action plan for a trip to twenty three of the application five additional deputy prosecutor should have been appointed by the end of the twenty seventeen why werent the if youre doing everything you need to do. Well to be honest i dont know the answer to that question but weve appointed them now and i have to say that you know you have you know priorities first and serbia literally four years ago was three months away from Bank Bankruptcy which goes to say that we really had to focus all of our effort all of our strength on very difficult very unpopular Economic Reforms you cannot do everything at the same time so far theres been no indictments against senior military or Police Officials for war crimes there are currently fifteen cases ongoing the majority involve low ranking military or Police Defendants whats the deal of a higher ups the Senior Officers get away with it in the lower ones take the prosecutions is that it to go i do not agree with you and again i think that serbia has done by far the most still you know still there is a job to be done but i think that serbia and i am absolutely proud with how serbia has handled our issues from the past are you are you proud of the trend in serbia that the points to to see former war criminals as heroes or role models do you subscribe to that no i do not i do not i think that you know we see in other countries in the region that the war criminals actually more or indicted war criminal sexually have official that all says advisors to the president s or in the government you know we have we see some being even the Prime Ministers but in serbia you do not have those kind of things you have the militias are of age for instance convicted for crimes against Ethnic Albanians of a quarter of a cause if you wanted lecture at the