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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

One step away from positive feasibility study

Brussels, 23 March 2005

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said following a meeting with EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana in Brussels last night that Serbia will fulfil all its obligations towards the Hague tribunal and he expressed conviction that this will lead to a positive feasibility study.

Vojislav Kostunica (left) and Javier Solana

Author: ue.eu.int

“I think that there were many reasons for optimism in talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and High Representative Solana, in light of what has been done recently. The same goes for a positive impact of a favourable feasibility study in the future,” Kostunica told reporters.

Kostunica and Solana discussed the need for a functioning State Union of Serbia and Montenegro as well as definitions of specifics concerning elections for the joint parliament and a referendum on the independence of Montenegro.

“There is the need for the state union, which is to enter the European integration process, to survive. This was reiterated in the talks with High Representative Solana,” said Kostunica.

He added that Solana, who is involved in Serbia-Montenegrin problems on behalf of the EU, expressed support for the preservation of the state union and its further progress.

He said that full cooperation with the Hague tribunal will not only be carried out to the point when Serbia gets a positive feasibility study but also into the future. This cooperation, according to Kostunica, means the fulfilment of the demands and the country’s international obligations.

Kostunica told Solana that Serbia knows the importance of a positive feasibility study for Serbia-Montenegro.

“I said Serbia-Montenegro because the country by that name, made up of two member-states, will enter European integration as a single state,” said Kostunica.

He added that talks with Solana also covered ways to make that state union more efficient, especially when it comes to its institutional bodies.

“We talked much about the provisions of the Constitutional Charter that refer to elections and a possible referendum,” said Kostunica.

The good news, according to Kostunica, is that the joint parliament has just passed several important laws, that there is political will for the parliament to continue its work, and that deputies can keep their mandates until new deputies are elected.

Kostunica added that he and Solana also discussed the implementation of standards in Kosovo-Metohija, especially given this year’s significance when it comes to that process.

Kostunica assured Solana and Rehn that as far as legislative reforms are concerned, much has been done in the past year in Serbia, and that all the laws passed in the parliament had been brought into line with EU standards.