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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia makes important step towards inclusion on Schengen white list

Belgrade, 12 June 2009

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said this evening that the European Commission’s announcement that by the end of July it will send a recommendation to the Council of the European Union to remove visa restrictions for Serbian citizens from January 1, 2010 is good news but it is only the first step towards Serbia’s inclusion on to the Schengen white list.

In an interview with Radio Television of Serbia, Dacic said that today’s news from Brussels shows that Serbia has met all the criteria for the European Commission to start the procedure for sending a positive recommendation. He said that the European Commission will also convey to Serbia what more needs to be done, adding that there are four key issues related to visa liberalisation which are travel document security, borders and immigration, organised crime and corruption and human rights and freedom. This is the first step in the right direction and by October we must prepare a report about what we have achieved regarding other technicalities, stressed Dacic.

He said that other important areas are border control, the procedure for issuing documents to citizens living in Kosovo and to those who also hold Bosnia-Herzegovina or Montenegrin citizenship.

The First Deputy Prime Minister said that Serbian and European Union representatives will meet again in October. After that meeting a recommendation will be presented before the European Parliament and EU states and then a formal decision will be made about the removal of visa restrictions.