Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Consensus on negotiating positions for beginning of talks with EU reached

Belgrade, 3 October 2005

Serbian Minister of International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic said today that the Serbian government and its political partners have reached a consensus on the negotiating positions for the beginning of negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU (SAA), anticipated to begin on October 10.

Author: Beta

Speaking at a roundtable discussion themed “Regional cooperation in southeast Europe- from the Stability Pact towards EU membership”, organised at the Sava centre by the Serbian Ministry of International Economic Relations, the Office of the Special coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the Serbia-Montenegrin Ministry of International Economic Relations, and the European movement in Serbia, Parivodic pointed out that a successful regional cooperation is of key importance for Serbia and that friendly relations in the region, in the widest sense, is a priority of the Serbian state policy.

Special coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek said that this gathering is the right moment to stress the South Eastern countries’ commitment that they will one day be members of the European Union.

He said that there is a strong tendency for regional cooperation, although the countries in the region are in different phases of EU accession, and added that the visa regime in the region is a solvable problem if the cooperation among ministers of interiors is established and if criminal and smuggling problems are solved by joint efforts.

Busek pointed out that it is still necessary to create a free trade zone in the region, which is according to him, the first step towards a common EU market.

Through debates of home and foreign experts, representatives of state organs, the European Commission, the Stability Pact and the professional public, the discussion stressed the significance and the need for strengthening regional cooperation, especially in the context of the southeast European countries entering the European and Euroatlantic integration processes.