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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia must meet technical conditions by September 30 for inclusion on Schengen white list

Belgrade, 22 July 2009

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU integration Bozidar Djelic said today that, Serbia must fulfill four technical conditions by September 30 in order to be included on the Schengen “white list”.

peaking at a session of the Serbian Parliament’s European integration committee, Djelic explained that an agreement needs to be signed with EULEX concerning security on the administrative line with Kosovo, the law on foreigners must be implemented, the law on the fight against corruption and organised crime needs to be implemented and the security measures for the issuance of biometric passports to citizens living in Kosovo must be put in place.

He stressed that Serbia is one step away from inclusion on the “white list”, adding that last year Serbian citizens spent €20 million in order to obtain Schengen visas and that 350,000 Serbian citizens went through the procedure.

Speaking about Kosovo, the Deputy Prime Minister said that since 1999, on the basis of Security Council Resolution 1244, the Serbian Interior Ministry has not been working at its full capacity in the province, because of which the government will prepare a specific procedure for issuing travel documents so that Serbian passports do not fall into the wrong hands.

Djelic said that the European Commission’s statement on visa liberalisation says that, on the basis of Resolution 1244, liberalisation will not apply to the population of Kosovo because of security reasons.

In the context of status this decision is neutral and draws upon international legal documents of key importance to Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, said Djelic.

He said that the Serbian government will make efforts to facilitate the establishment of a visa liberalisation regime for all Serbian citizens and will continue to issue passports to all its citizens, including those living in Kosovo, without any ethnic discrimination.

At this particular point in time the Schengen countries are not prepared to allow visa- free travel to residents of Kosovo, but we will continue to work to make this possible for the people there as well, said Djelic.

Djelic said that 70% of the national European integration programme has now been implemented, while this figure was 29% in December last year, adding that Serbia already has the capacity to begin membership negotiations with the EU. He thanked the Serbian Parliament for the efficiency with which 66 laws vital to European integration were passed.

Great progress has been made, said Djelic, stressing that parliament deserves major credit for the excellent progress made in the area of European integration.