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First round of talks with EU starts

Belgrade, 7 November 2005

The first round of talks between Serbia-Montenegro and the EU on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) will be conducted in Belgrade today, reported the Serbia-Montenegrin European Integration Office.

Serbia-Montenegro’s negotiating team, consisting of members of the teams from the state union, and Serbia and Montenegro individually, will be headed by Serbia-Montenegrin Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Draskovic.

The EU delegation will be led by Head of the European Directorate for Western Balkans and the European Commission Enlargement Directorate Reinhard Priebe. Present at the meeting will also be the representatives of the European Commission Delegation in Belgrade and the EU member states.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus will be at the head of the Serbian delegation, while Montenegrin Minister of International Economic Relations and European Integration Gordana Djurovic will lead the Montenegrin negotiating team.

The discussion points of the first round of negotiations are chapters concerning preamble, general principles, political dialogue, regional cooperation, cooperation policy and financial cooperation.

A plenary meeting of the ninth advanced standing dialogue is scheduled for November 8, in Belgrade. The topic of the discussion will be issues stated in the Feasibility Study, namely a cooperation with the Hague tribunal and the rights of national minorities.

The official talks between Serbia-Montenegro and the EU started on October 10, and it is estimated that they will last one year. Three official rounds of talks have been planned in that period – in November 2005, April 2006 and November 2006, as well as five technical meetings – in December 2005 and March, June, July and September 2006.

Parallel to the official EU talks, meetings of the advanced standing dialogue will be held, with the view of continually monitoring the implementation of the reform process in Serbia-Montenegro, reads the statement of the Serbia-Montenegrin European Integration Office.