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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

European Commission’s report on Serbia’s progress highly positive

Belgrade, 14 October 2009

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU integration Bozidar Djelic said today that the European Commission’s report on Serbia’s European integration progress is the most positive yet.

In an interview with Tanjug news agency, Djelic said that he expects that the implementation of the Transitional Trade Agreement (TTA) with Serbia will be unfrozen in December, stressing that this report recognises the enormous progress Serbia has made, primarily in parliamentary efficiency, and also in judicial reforms and security.

Speaking about the European Commission’s proposal to unfreeze the TTA, which is opposed by the Netherlands on grounds of unsatisfactory cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Djelic said that this shows that the European Commission supports Serbia and that all we need is for a consensus to be reached within the EU regarding this matter.

We all know that there is only one country that refuses to change its stance and the first opportunity for reaching agreement will arrive at the end of October at a meeting of the Council of Ministers. In the case that this does not happen then, we expect that a consensus will be reached during the European summit in December after Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz’s new report, said Djelic. Responding to the question of whether Belgrade was ready for the EU expert mission currently visiting to verify if Serbia has met all the criteria for the removal of visa restrictions, Djelic said that he is certain that the mission will be satisfied. Djelic said that he is convinced that the expert mission’s final assessment will lead to a situation where after December 1, following consultations with the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers will make a positive decision and Serbia will be added to the Schengen white list from January 1, 2010.

He also said he believes that the British MPs, with whom he talked in Belgrade yesterday, were very serious about the initiative for Britain to abolish visas for Serbian citizens, adding that this could come true within a few years.

It is beyond doubt that once Serbia acquires the white Schengen, it will have the strongest possible recommendation for a visa-free regime with other countries in the world, he said.

If German, French and Italian foreign ministers are opening borders for our citizens and believe that Serbia has reached the necessary level of security, then this is a strong argument for the UK and Ireland, who are not signatories of the Schengen Agreement, to contemplate the same possibility, Djelic explained.

He said that the next time the UK could make such a decision will be in 2011, adding that the aim of these talks with British MPs were to ensure an affirmative answer to this issue over the next 18–24 months.

Djelic stressed that Serbia is doing all it can to reach the standards necessary for EU membership, adding that its efforts have been recognised by a number of EU countries, as well as the USA.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that in October 2008 Serbia adopted the National EU Integration Programme, whose clear goal is the full harmonisation of Serbia’s legislature with that of the EU before the end of 2012.

He also said that since last July up to 81% of this programme had been fulfilled, which shows Belgrade’s commitment to this process, but also warned that Serbia cannot relax yet as this is a huge task involving thousands of pages of documents.

This is an enormous task for the entire administration and we will maintain the same commitment to the National Programme, just as we are to implementing the Transitional Agreement, which is a strong argument in our favour that encourages our European partners to do the same, Djelic concluded.