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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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EU Commission's annual report on Serbia's progress to have positive connotation

Brussels, 2 October 2006

Director of the Serbian government's EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic said today that the Euroepan Commission's annual report on Serbia's progress in EU integration will have a very positive connotation despite the negative assessment regarding the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and the Serbian government will be highly assessed for the EU standards implementation process.

Following a meeting with Director General of the European Commission’s Enlargement Directorate Michael Leigh in Brussels, Miscevic said that in its annual report, due to be issued on November 8, the European Commission will state that it expects no problems regarding the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in Serbia, which is the key assessment point for further steps in the EU integration process.

She stressed that this means the Commission does not expect that Serbia will face any serious obstacles in obtaining EU candidate status.

Serbia's progress is obvious and the country will have no problems implementing the SAA, once the talks resume and conclude, said Miscevic.

She said she believes that Serbian ministries and government will be highly assessed when it comes to EU standards implementation.

The only area where Serbia will not be positively assessed is cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, which remains a political condition for the continuation of the negotiations, said Miscevic adding that there will be no negative assessments in any other areas, though certain minuses will be present, primarily in the judiciary and interior affairs sector.

Miscevic said that the EU Commission was interested in Serbia's draft constitution, especially regarding human rights protection and legislature, as well as the way the constitution allows Serbia to join the EU. In this context, the Commission has asked for a translation of the draft constitution and analysis of accession-related provisions.

The Commission's annual report is the crucial assessment of a country's progress in the EU integration process and this year for the first time the Commission will state its position on EU's enlargement capacity. The EU will decide whether it is able to accept new member countries based on the findings of the annual report.