BELGRADE, December 12./TASS/. Serbia urges the EU member countries that do not recognize the independence of Kosovo to prevent Pristina from submitting an application for European Union membership on December 15, Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday.

"We are working on this, to urge all EU member nations that have not recognized Kosovo to contest this issue from the point of view of status, that is [from the point of view] that there are no necessary conditions to discuss this," Dacic told the Tanjug news agency.

Earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that on December 15, Pristina will officially apply for EU membership, thus violating the Washington Agreement. Vucic said he would send personal letters to the leaders of Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia, the countries that have not recognized Kosovo’s independence.

Earlier, the president of unrecognized Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, said that Pristina would apply for EU membership by the end of this year. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, stressed in this regard that the EU would assess the membership application from unrecognized Kosovo when the document was officially received from Pristina.

Under the Washington Agreement, Pristina agreed not to apply for membership in any international organizations, while Serbia agreed to suspend its efforts to encourage other states to revoke the recognition of Kosovo. In early August of 2021, the Kosovo parliament declined the resolution obliging it to comply with the Washington Agreement.

Kosovo and Metohija unilaterally proclaimed its independence in February 2008, and over recent years, it has been actively trying to join international organizations, including UNESCO and Interpol. Over 60 countries refuse to recognize Kosovo, including Russia, India and China, as well as five European Union countries.