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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Maximum security measures for US Vice President’s visit

Belgrade, 18 May 2009

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said that the police and all Serbian state organs will put maximum security measures in place for US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Belgrade.

Author: Ivica Dacic

In an interview with the daily newspaper Borba, Dacic said that the public will not be drastically affected by the security measures, adding that the security measures apply only to the routes which will be used during Biden’s visit.

The Serbian government’s website presents excerpts of the interview.

Security measures during Biden’s visit to Belgrade:

The police and other security services should inform the public about the security measures and what they imply. The Serbian police and all other state organs will put maximum security measures in place so that the visit can proceed without any problems. This means that the roads which will be used during Biden’s visit will be completely closed to traffic. Cars will be stopped for short periods of time while the official vehicles are passing by. Public gatherings near the routes being used will not be allowed. All measures will be put in place to secure the buildings along the roads being used. These measures require a large number of security personnel and we are talking about this with representatives of US security services.

Including Serbia on the Schengen white list by the end of the year:

The European Commision is very positive about that decision but the date depends on the further course of political relations within the EU itself, as well as on the position of member states regarding this issue. I am optimistic that Serbian citizens will soon travel throughout the EU visa free. We have fulfilled almost everything on the so-called “road map” for visa liberalisation. This means that the Serbian parliament has passed all appropriate laws and strategies and that several more action plans will be adopted.

Number of new passports issued:

Nearly 550,000 new biometric passports have been issued so far, which was positively assessed by the European Commision. According to our estimates, around one million people were in possession of the old passport.

Technical problems regarding the visa liberalisation:

The Interior Ministry is in a very delicate situation as it is responsible for the safety of documents. Under the Law on passports, the Mint prints the passports and the Ministry has no influence there.