Serbia will suffer in its EU accession negotiations the consequences of appropriating the Croatian cultural heritage, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said in Pula on Friday.

Serbia’s cultural heritage law, which was passed recently and under which Dubrovnik literature belongs to both Serbian and Croatian culture, has been met with strong condemnation from Croatian officials and cultural institutions.

“Appropriating the Croatian cultural heritage is not in line with European values and the prospect Serbia has opted for, and there will certainly be consequences when certain chapters that are key to that, such as education, are opened,” Grlic-Radman told the press.

He said the Croatian ambassador in Belgrade had protested to the Serbian authorities.

Appropriating the cultural heritage of others is scandalous but evidently fits into the hegemonic policy is spreading the so-called Serbian world, the minister said. “That’s incomprehensible and unacceptable to us in the 21st century and we condemn it very strongly.”

Serbia’s Cultural Heritage Act, passed on 23 December, includes among old and rare library material Dubrovnik’s literary editions, claiming they belong to both Serbian and Croatian culture up to the year 1867.