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Labus seeks support for Serbia-Montenegro's EU accession

Belgrade/Paris, 7 April 2005

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, who is on an official visit to Paris, stated that besides Serbia-Montenegro’s EU accession, one of the main topics of talks with French officials is economic cooperation of the two countries.

Miroljub Labus

Labus told the Tanjug agency that during yesterday’s talks with diplomatic advisor to French President Jacques Chirac Maurice Gourdault-Montagne and French Minister for Foreign Trade François Loos he requested support to the acceleration of the process of Serbia-Montenegro’s EU accession, which will also be discussed today, as he added, during the meeting with French Minister for European Affairs Claudie Haigneré.

Labus pointed out that his impression is that the response to the beginning of the Feasibility Study will be positive and added that his French counterparts did not wish to say what the position of the European Commission will be in advance of an official announcement.

According to him, there was talk about the standards and status of Kosovo-Metohija, and French officials made it clear that they expect Serbia-Montenegro to be an economic and political stabilising force in the region. Labus assessed that this was a diplomatic meeting aimed at preparing the future dialogue on Kosovo-Metohija, where France will play a key role.

The economic part of the working visit to Paris relates to the possibility of increasing bilateral trade and financial exchange, which has been good in the first two months of this year, stated the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and added that Serbia is expected to offer above all greater political stability and more efficient trade courts, as conditions for safer investments. He underlined that the French are interested in our textile industry, considering that Serbia has recently signed an agreement on trade in textile goods with the EU.

Labus specified that the talks with the French Minister of Foreign Trade focused on privatisation and assessed that we are now in the phase when large investors are entering on a smaller scale, as speculative funds are very aggressive therefore leading to an unstable market. He explained that, when the financial market is more stable, large investors should increase their investments.

The official visit to Paris will continue today with talks in the Senate and the National Assembly, as well as the French Agency for International Business Development (UBIFrance) and the Movement of French Enterprises (MEDEF).