BRUSSELS – Recalled Ambassador of Serbia to the EU Dusko Lopandić considers that his recall came hastily and without the usual procedure, consultations and consideration of the objective circumstances of what happened.
As stated in his letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, his recall occurred during a period of a technical government and a delicate moment in the negotiations with the EU.
“This procedure is in drastic disproportion with usual cases of proverbial delays of Ministry of Foreign Affairs to determine according to various scandals and failures that have afflicted the reputation or the interests of our country, including those in which our people lost their lives or Charge d’Affaires were subject to criminal liability, and various other examples, ” Lopandić said in his letter.
Lopandić reminds that the usual procedure that presumes that a diplomat, in case of a failure, is firstly warned and invited to consultations that “weigh” the gravity of the case or seek to explain all the circumstances of the issue.
“Not once have you personally talked to me, you were indirectly informed, which only indicates the relationship to our ambassadors, diplomats and all those who serve this country in the best way, often in not so easy circumstances”, said Lopandić.
The Ambassador also said that the decision to be immediately revoked annulled and ignored thirty years of his professional career.
“It is a devastating fact for every professional officer that tactless classifications about my “omission in the work” are currently given in public. It refers to the alleged lack of a quick notification on the organization of a private exhibition at the European Parliament, organized by a single (out of 754) MEP, with a completely marginal and insignificant influence” Lopandić points out.
Minister is, as Lopandić claims, familiar that dozens of exhibitions and conferences are organized daily within the European Parliament, which have no official character and are organized contrary to the official positions of EU member states.
“I responsibly claim that the interests of Serbia and Serbian citizens, on the occasion of the organization of the exhibition about Stepinac, were adequately protected by a prompt reaction of the Serbian Mission to the EU – in a written and oral form – in all relevant instances of the European Parliament …” Lopandić states in the letter.
Minister, as he adds, is also familiar that almost none of the EP officials did not know about this exhibition nor had they ever heard of Stepinac until our reaction.
Bearing in mind the rapid and appropriate response of the Mission of Serbia to the EP, drastic sanction that is applied to him, “does not correspond to the level of the so-called omission, and much less to the non-existent consequences of this omission,” says the ambassador recalled.