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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Stabilisation and Association Agreement to be signed by July

Belgrade, 7 April 2006

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus today voiced hope that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union will be signed by July this year.

Tanja Miscevic, left, and Miroljub Labus

Author: Fonet

Presenting the results of the second official round of negotiations with the EU, at a working breakfast with journalists, Labus said that all parties quickly reached an agreement on the issues which were disputable six months ago.

During the talks held on April 5, the concluding provisions of the agreement were discussed, which is an indicator that the negotiations are drawing to an end, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He said that although planned, a more relaxed visa regime was not discussed, just like other questions related to that field, like asylum seekers, immigration, readmission. However, that will be the topic of the next technical round of talks scheduled for May.

It has remained to finalise the lists of industrial and agricultural products, for which reason Serbia's negotiators will travel to Brussels in late April to discuss it with representatives of the European Commission, Labus said and voiced hope that the lists of goods will be adopted in early June.

Speaking about the new constitution, Labus explained that this issue, as opposed to that of the cooperation with the Hague tribunal, is not a precondition for signing the SAA, but added that from the EU's standpoint, it is desirable that Serbia adopts a new constitution.

The Serbian Deputy Prime Minister said that an agreement on the new constitution can be reached during the course of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, explaining that the proposal of the constitution itself leads Serbia into the EU.

According to Labus, in the second round of talks an agreement was reached on transferring the rights of workers and their families acquired in one country to another one, in case that the workers move to another state.

As for the further liberalisation of labour market, it was agreed that on the halfway of the SAA's implementation, in approximately three years, the Council for the agreement's implementation put on the agenda the further liberalisation in this field, Labus said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the possible separation of Montenegro should not influence the continuation of talks with the EU because they are already now conducted after the "two-track lane" principle, and recalled that the next official round of EU talks is scheduled for June 8 and 9, regardless of the result of Montenegro's referendum.

Head of the EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic said during a meeting with journalists that the preparation of the Serbian government's Action plan for the realisation of priorities from the European partnership showed that Serbian ministries are well prepared for the process of the European integration.

Presenting the results of the plenary meeting of the Enhanced Permanent Dialogue between Serbia-Montenegro and the EU held late yesterday, Miscevic said that the Serbian ministries did a very good job by defining the necessary steps for fulfilling the priorities of the European partnership.

According to Miscevic, two weeks ago the government adopted the Action plan for the harmonisation where 43 laws were signed. At the following government's session, an action plan for building capacities will be discussed.

These are the accompanying documents which contain instructions for the implementation of the European partnership, Miscevic explained and pointed out that these documents are binding for the state until the SAA is signed and its implementation launched.