Serbia's application to join the European Union will be submitted after the unfreezing of the interim trade agreement, when it is clear that it will not remain unresolved for months but will be replied to in the shortest possible time frame, President Boris Tadic said on Nov. 26.

He told journalists in Belgrade, following a ceremony marking the Day of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, that Serbia had recently been conducting very complicated international activities, requiring a strategy that would produce results.

"I don't care how it looks to the public, I care about the results of our actions, because if we were interested in the public's reaction, then we would hurry up with the application, but we must pay attention to what the consequences of that application or any other initiative that we launch could be," said the president.

The decision to submit the application, he added, would also depend on the process in the EU.

According to him, the first step is the unfreezing of the interim trade agreement, then the submission of the membership application, and then after that all ministries will have to answer the questionnaire sent from Brussels. Serbia's EU membership negotiations would then begin.

Speaking about Kosovo, Tadic said that a different approach was needed in talks on the future status of Kosovo and that inflexibility was one of the primary problems in Serbia.

"A different approach is what Serbia needs today...inflexibility is one of the primary problems which we face. Innovation is needed now more than ever in reaching political decisions," said Tadic.

"He who has not learnt the simple lesson that a rigid, stiff and overly traditional approach doesn't give results and can't be repeated in the future, loses the right and legitimacy to perform his or her job in the present," said Tadic.