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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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EU candidate status Serbia’s main goal in 2009

Belgrade/Brussels, 9 February 2009

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said today that Serbia’s key aims are unblocking the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and Serbia’s inclusion on the Schengen “white list”.

Ivica Dacic, left, and Olli Rehn

Author: Fonet/AP

Dacic. who is on a two day visit to Brussels, said at a joint press conference with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn that two more expert groups from the European Commission will come to Belgrade to assess to what degree Serbia has fulfilled the conditions for the removal of visa restrictions.

He said that Serbia has made significant progress in that area, adding that he is convinced that Serbia will be included on the Schengen “white list” by the end of the year.

He said that Serbia is required to sign a Council of Europe convention and to adopt a strategy for the fight against organised crime and drug trafficking, as well as several other laws and action plans.

He specified that 290,000 biometric passports have been issued in Serbia up until now, adding that equipment for reading biometric documents has been installed at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.

Responding to the question about whether Belgrade will submit an application for candidate status before the SAA is unblocked, Dacic said that the Serbian government has considered this matter.

The government wishes for Serbia to join the EU as soon as possible, primarily for the good of the Serbian people, he said, adding that the aim is to finally settle the issue of full cooperation with the Hague tribunal.

He said that an EU committee will visit Belgrade at the invitation of the Serbian Foreign Ministry and assess the progress made regarding cooperation with the tribunal.

Rehn said that he will visit Belgrade on February 12 in order to support Serbia’s aspirations for a European future, adding that Belgrade should not apply for candidate status as long as positive results from the transitional trade agreement have not been achieved.

He said that he wishes to talk to representatives of the various political parties in the Serbian parliament in order to discuss the acceleration of the process of passing the laws necessary for Serbia’s EU integration.

Speaking about the removal of visa restrictions, Rehn said that there could be good news by the end of this year.

He said that an expert committee of the EU will visit Serbia in April and make a report about Serbia’s progress regarding the fulfillment of conditions for the removal of visa restrictions and if the report is positive then the European Commission could be willing to recommend Serbia’s inclusion on the Schengen “white list”.

Dacic also talked with European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Jacques Barrot, who said that the Commission thinks Serbia has achieved great progress towards visa liberalisation.

Barrot said that the European Commission’s first expert mission has a very positive picture of what Serbia has done in the previous period, said Dacic, voicing his expectation that the next two expert missions, who are to arrive in Serbia over the next several weeks, will also draft positive reports.

We believe that before April Serbia will have fulfiled all the conditions set forth by the European Commission, which means that we may expect the Commission’s positive recommendation to be sent to the European Parliament and member states this year, regarding visa liberalisation for Serbia, stressed Dacic.

Following the meeting with Rehn and Barrot, Dacic told the Tanjug news agency that they agreed that before April Serbia is to fulfil all the obligations which it took upon with the road map. Afterwards everything that the expert committees and missions have so far concluded would be analysed, he added.

There are very satisfactory reactions to Serbia’s current achievements in terms of visa liberalisation. Here we do not only have the support of Commissioner Rehn, but Barrot’s as well and he is in charge of visa liberalisation, noted Dacic.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that during the two-day meetings with European officials he was assured that there has been progress in efforts to find a solution to unfreeze the Transitional Trade Agreement and open Serbia’s road for EU membership.

Dacic said that at these meetings he also discussed security issues and the possibility for the Serbian police to take part in EU’s police missions.

Dacic recalled that the Serbian police have already taken part in several peace missions, such as those in Haiti and Liberia.

At the meeting with Director-General of the Council of Europe General Secretariat Robert Cooper he notified him about Serbia’s wish to take part in EU police missions.

He noted these are primarily peace, civilian and uniformed police missions, and not military ones, because if the army is to be used outside the country’s borders, Serbian parliament would have to grant permission.

He added that thus Serbia would show it has highly specialised police forces and at the same time demonstrate its clear EU aspirations.