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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Feasibility Study - admission to negotiations on EU association

Belgrade, 16 March 2005

In an interview for the latest edition of “E Magazine” Serbian Minister of International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic said that he expected this country to conclude the Agreement on Stabilisation and Association with the EU in the first half of 2006.

Milan Parivodic

Parivodic said that this would be a period of true reform, as great efforts must be exerted in adapting our economic system and legal norms and those standards that must be fulfilled by countries which conclude this agreement with the EU.

The minister explained that the Feasibility Study confirms a country’s ability to enter into stabilisation and association negotiations with the EU. It is, in essence, a green light for negotiations, which follow immediately after receiving a positive assessment, stated Parivodic. He underlined that enormous expert and administrative capacities need to be engaged to complete those negotiations.

Parivodic went on to say that those reforms are for the country’s own benefit and coincide with Serbia-Montenegro’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.

According to him, nearly all economic parameters achieved in economic policy in 2004, as well as in this year, were, with slight differences, assessed as very good by certain European expert circles. The greatest problem is the significant foreign trade deficit, about $7.5 billion last year, which is the chief objection of the International Monetary Fund, but this is the consequence of structural problems in the economy. Parivodic explained that there is an abundance of state and publicly owned companies and that private companies make up a far smaller share of the economy. He pointed out the debt write off by the Paris and London clubs, the sixth arrangement with the International Monetary fund that is expected in the first half of this year and the first B plus rating of the overall economic situation as government successes that should not be hampered by unforeseen obstacles that might derail these results. He also noted the increasing level of cooperation with the Hague tribunal as important, especially as it concerns the feasibility study.