"Germans aren't bringing proposals; they aren't even coming"

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has denied that a German delegation would arrive here today with a proposal for a legally biding Kosovo agreement.

"That's nonsense, nobody's coming," Dacic told Belgrade daily Politika, Beta agency is reporting on Thursday.

Politika writes that Dacic thus denied not only the arrival of a German delegation - that was reportedly to be led either by the country's foreign minister, or the state secretary of Germany's Foreign Ministry - but also the unofficial claims that their proposal would be to give Kosovo observer status in the UN.

Speaking on Wednesday, President of the Forum for Ethnic Relations Dusan Janjic said that "a German delegation that is coming to Belgrade on Thursday would bring a concept of a legally binding agreement, which Serb and Kosovo officials should sign by the end of the year."

But later, Janjic "clarified that this would not be the agreement's concept, but rather the key points of Germany's policy for the Western Balkans," Beta is reporting.

Presenting the elements that the document should contain - drafted by his NGO - Janjic assessed that Germany would "play a more active role in solving the problems in the Western Balkans, and in line with that, Berlin is advocating the position that Kosovo should be given the UN observer status."

Earlier, Miljan Damjanovic, a member of the Serbian National Assembly from the ranks of the opposition SRS, said that Germany would "ask from Serbia to accept giving Kosovo a chair in the UN, and not to hamper each other in EU accession," which he said was in fact a demand for Serbia to recognize Kosovo.

"Settlements, municipalities, provinces are not admitted to the EU, only states are... It has now been made clear that through packages and agreements, it will be de facto asked of us to recognize Kosovo," he told a press conference at the Assembly.

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