Germany shows whether an attitude toward exchange of territories has changed

Germany opposes the exchange of territory between Serbia and Kosovo as a solution to Kosovo's problem, and this stance will not change.

So said German Ambassador to Serbia Thomas Schieb in a conversation for N1 television.

He said many other EU countries and countries in the region share that view.

“Kancerija Angela Merkel has publicly expressed her views in public, this stance remains valid. I know there have been speculation that Germany's position can change, but no, the German stance remains what is”, the German ambassador said.

Schieb said it is not true that “alone a slight change in territory will solve Kosovo's” and added that there are a number of other issues like protection of minorities, protection of church heritage and many others, and that the issue of border correction only draws attention to all these issues.

The ambassador said Germany is concerned that if there will be a change in borders this could have implications in the region, and that this could contribute to resolving Kosovo's problem, but could cause problems in other parts of the region, which cannot be predicted.

If after these conflicts we had in the region, The new limits we are concerned could lead to instability in the region”, Schieb said.

German diplomat said his country is aware of the difficult way to resolve the Kosovo issue, but there is a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at finding a comprehensive and legal agreement with EU mediation and that Germany supports it.

“We know this part is not progressing, but we should say we should give a new impulse to make progress, because the dynamic plan has a broad spectrum of topics that we need to resolve and consider”, the German ambassador said.