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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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EU visa regime to be relaxed, Miscevic hopes

Belgrade, 18 October 2006

Director of the Serbian government's EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic said she hopes that once the negotiating process on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU resumes, Serbia will start applying it and seek EU candidate status.

Tanja Miscevic

Author: Tanjug

In an interview for today's edition of the daily Vecernje Novosti, Miscevic said that this will inevitably happen because Serbia is one of the countries that have been positively assessed when it comes to technical preparedness, but added that the stall in the talks on the SAA will have an impact on Serbia's overall EU association process.

She recalled that according to the plan, talks on the SAA should be concluded by end-2006 at the latest so that the implementation of the agreement could begin early next year. However, everything has been put off for the time being, she added.

Speaking about the current talks on visa relaxations for certain categories of citizens, Miscevic said that they represent an important gesture toward Serbia on behalf of the EU. "What we are hoping for is a speedy conclusion of the talks so that we can begin applying these visa relaxations", she added.

According to Miscevic, citizen categories to be granted visa relaxations are already known and they include students, scientific workers, employees in public administration, the media, employees in the non-governmental sector, families of workers legally employed in the EU, as well as holders of diplomatic official passports.