Q:
A:
Official EU candidacy in 2006
Belgrade,
4 March 2005
Secretary of the Office for Association with the EU Radmila Milivojevic announced today that Serbia will officially apply for EU membership in February or March next year.
Author:
Fonet
She told reporters at the ‘Transition=Integration’ meeting in Belgrade’s Palace Hotel that the decision to file an application is not premature, given that the EU’s new budget cycle runs from between 2007 and 2013 and that Serbia needs access to European funds in order to enter the third stage of transition, which calls for radical systemic changes and more funding.
Milivojevic confirmed that a positive feasibility study will be announced by the end of March and that talks could be launched in September this year.
She explained that the agreement on stabilisation and association is, basically, a trade agreement, which involves the creation of a free trade zone with the EU. That said, the main goal of the negotiations will be to set a deadline for Serbia to open its market for duty-free trade with Europe.
Preparations are well under way and most of the work has been done through the passage of laws to simplify the incorporation procedure and to introduce value added tax, according to Milivojevic.
Serbian Minister of Economy Predrag Bubalo, who is a member of Serbia’s negotiation team, said that these laws are just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that the remaining 90 percent of the laws will be drafted in the process of harmonisation with the EU.
He added that Serbia, on its road to Europe, has oriented itself towards developing small and medium sized enterprises as the main generators of growth as well as addressing the problems of surplus labour, as many workers will be laid off in the restructuring processes.
According to Bubalo, small and medium sized enterprises account for 99.1 percent of Serbia’s economy. Large public sector firms make up only 0.9 percent of the economy, but employ 47 percent of the workforce.
Bubalo noted that large enterprises are clearly the main driving force of growth in every country but that Serbia needs substantial “fresh” capital, new technologies, and modern management in order to get these companies going.
The Office for Association with the EU and the German Conrad Adenauer Foundation have jointly organised a series of meetings with media representatives with the aim of preparing the public for the launch of talks on the agreement on stabilisation and association with the EU.
The project will last until July this year, and journalists will meet with members of the government’s negotiation team, the European Commission’s delegation in Serbia-Montenegro, and representatives of EU member-countries.
The meetings will be held in the form of working breakfasts every second Sunday.
Milivojevic confirmed that a positive feasibility study will be announced by the end of March and that talks could be launched in September this year.
She explained that the agreement on stabilisation and association is, basically, a trade agreement, which involves the creation of a free trade zone with the EU. That said, the main goal of the negotiations will be to set a deadline for Serbia to open its market for duty-free trade with Europe.
Preparations are well under way and most of the work has been done through the passage of laws to simplify the incorporation procedure and to introduce value added tax, according to Milivojevic.
Serbian Minister of Economy Predrag Bubalo, who is a member of Serbia’s negotiation team, said that these laws are just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that the remaining 90 percent of the laws will be drafted in the process of harmonisation with the EU.
He added that Serbia, on its road to Europe, has oriented itself towards developing small and medium sized enterprises as the main generators of growth as well as addressing the problems of surplus labour, as many workers will be laid off in the restructuring processes.
According to Bubalo, small and medium sized enterprises account for 99.1 percent of Serbia’s economy. Large public sector firms make up only 0.9 percent of the economy, but employ 47 percent of the workforce.
Bubalo noted that large enterprises are clearly the main driving force of growth in every country but that Serbia needs substantial “fresh” capital, new technologies, and modern management in order to get these companies going.
The Office for Association with the EU and the German Conrad Adenauer Foundation have jointly organised a series of meetings with media representatives with the aim of preparing the public for the launch of talks on the agreement on stabilisation and association with the EU.
The project will last until July this year, and journalists will meet with members of the government’s negotiation team, the European Commission’s delegation in Serbia-Montenegro, and representatives of EU member-countries.
The meetings will be held in the form of working breakfasts every second Sunday.
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