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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia-EU Forum as opportunity to show Serbia’s progress on path to EU

Belgrade, 8 September 2011

Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic expressed his hope today that the EU will respond positively this year to Serbia’s request for obtaining EU candidate status.

Djelic said in an interview for the Tanjug news agency that the Serbia-EU Forum, which the Serbian government is organising tomorrow in Belgrade, will be an opportunity to show to European partners once again the progress our country made on this path.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the European Commission will release its opinion on Serbia’s progress on 12 October.

Serbia has to finish the job it has started - to adopt the law on restitution and the law on public property, to provide additional evidence that is working dedicatedly fighting corruption and organised crime and to resolve certain issues that were raised in dialogue with Pristina, Djelic specified.

He added that the process of ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) is underway and that only a small number of countries have not ratified it.

Djelic underlined that Ireland ratified the SAA during the summer and noted that there are countries like France that have been in this process for a long time, but also countries that are in specific circumstances, such as Belgium, which is in the process of ratification, but has a technical government.

Lithuania promised to finish the process in autumn, and Romania should put this issue on the agenda of its parliament.

This process was encouraged only in June last year and in a bit more than a year, about 20 countries ratified the agreement, the Deputy Prime Minister said and underlined that this is a great success and it shows that Serbia enjoys a deep support for its next steps towards the EU.

He recalled that the Hague conditions have been met, and when the laws on restitution and public property are adopted in mid-September, the Action Plan will be fulfilled and it will be seen that Serbia is ready to give a constructive contribution to dialogue.

These are strong arguments of our country that should be recognised in the opinion of the European Commission, and after that, in the specific decisions of EU member states in December.