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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia’s aim to fulfill all terms for visa abolition by year’s end

Belgrade, 1 February 2008

Head of the Office for International Cooperation and EU Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Drazen Maravic said today that a general framework for dialogue on visa abolition for Serbian citizen’s traveling to EU countries was agreed on in the first meeting with representatives of the European Commission.

Maravic told daily Blic that the dialogue with European Commission representatives started in Belgrade on January 30 and added that this is a completely new process, both in a methodological and essential sense.

He stressed that the next meeting should take place as soon as possible, within the next ten days, noting that framework criteria should be established for Serbia as well as ways to verify that they have been met.

According to Maravic, all EU countries should agree with that “road map”, and its content will set the pace of the dialogue.

For the time being, only the principle steps are known including security of documents, illegal migration, readmission, interior security and relations between the EU and Serbia.

We are alone are responsible for meeting these criteria, and they are very ambitious as we intend to fulfill all the terms for visa abolition by the end of the year, said Maravic.

He recalled that Vice-President of the European Commission Franco Frattini and Slovenian Interior Minister Dragutin Mate agreed on January 30 that police reform and the results of their work marked a significant progress in practically every field, which made commencement of this dialogue possible.

It was also agreed that Director of the Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission and deputy of the special representative of the EU for visas, asylum and migration Jean-Louis de Brouwer, on behalf of the EU, and Maravic, on behalf of Serbia, will coordinate this process.