Bulgaria will support Serbia joining the EU, but it's not likely to change its position on Kosovo, says that country's ambassador in Belgrade.

"EU membership means that a country is, among other things, stable, progressive, and such Serbia is in the interest of Bulgaria, so we will support every effort of Serbia to approach the EU," Georgi Dimitrov told Germany's Deutsche Welle.

He also noted that EU membership means deep reforms and that the process takes a long time.

"That's an individual issue for every country. The accession process means many steps. Bulgaria's accession took 12 years from the moment the candidature was submitted, and I think that the average period is not shorter than ten years," said Dimitrov.

The Bulgarian diplomat also said that "the question of Kosovo should be clearly separate from the issue of Serbia joining the EU", and that the latter "should not be postponed because of Kosovo".

Asked whether the International Court of Justice's decision on the legality of the Kosovo Albanian unilateral declaration of independence of the southern Serb province would change Bulgaria's position – which recognized the proclamation – Dimitrov said that "the existing position is very hard to change".

"Bulgaria's stance will depend on the court's decision, but we expect that the decision will be formulated in such a way that will leave space for various interpretations. That was the practice so far in similar cases," the ambassador was quoted as saying.

"However, one needs to understand that the existing position on recognizing the independence of any country is very difficult to change," said Dimitrov.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!