Director of the Serbian government's EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic said that although the continuation of negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) is dictated by political conditions, connections with Brussels at the technical level have been maintained all this time.
Tanja Miscevic
Author:
FoNet
Miscevic said that the contacts with the European Commission are continuous, while technical talks are conducted as part of the Enhanced Permanent Dialogue with the EU. Next week, the issues that should be discussed are environmental protection, food safety and financial control.
Miscevic underlined that the process of stabilisation and association has not been stopped for Serbia, but that the talks on SAA have been called off and that they will be continued when the obligation of cooperation with the Hague tribunal is fulfilled.
If the talks are resumed by the end of this month then there is a big chance that SAA be concluded by the end of the year.
According to Miscevic, a great part of negotiations has been completed and it remains to define lists that refer to liberalisation of trade with industrial and agricultural products and the final provisions of SAA, which are usually not negotiated.