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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia’s goal EU candidacy by mid-2011 at latest

Belgrade, 18 February 2010

Deputy Prime Minister for EU integration Bozidar Djelic today stated that Serbia’s goal is to acquire EU candidate status by the middle of 2011 at the latest.

At the session of the Serbian parliamentary Committee on European Integration, Djelic explained that Serbia’s goal is that the European Commission receives the green light for debating Serbia’s candidacy application during the course of Spain’s EU presidency. The candidate status Serbia should acquire during Belgium’s presidency, which will succeed Spain.

He said that Serbia is investing considerable efforts to ensure that its application is included in the agenda of one of the upcoming sessions of the Council of Ministers, adding that Serbia is getting ready for that, regardless of whether its candidacy will be discussed at the spring or summer session.

Presenting the report on the implementation of the National EU Integration Programme for the period October–December 2009, Djelic said that the overall realisation of the report is 77%, that is, that 88 out of 115 regulations were adopted.

According to him, the Serbian parliament adopted 22 laws during this period, by far exceeding the planned schedule, which means parliament was very efficient in this period.

This confirms that it is impossible to go to the EU without Serbian parliament, Djelic said and expressed hope that Serbia and its institutions in 2010 will achieve all planned.

He added that it is an ambitious goal to harmonise local regulations with those of the EU by the end of 2012.

This means we need to pass 420 more regulations, which requires more efficiency of the government and parliament, Djelic said.

Djelic recalled that visas for citizens of Serbia have been abolished, the Interim Trade Agreement has been unfrozen and that application was made for Serbian membership in the EU.

Director of the Office for EU Integration Milica Delevic said that the year 2009 was the best year so far when it comes to European integration, a reason more to work even better in 2010.