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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia could become associate EU member in 2006

Kraljevo, 20 June 2005

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, who is also head of Serbia’s team for negotiations with the EU, said today that it is very important for Serbia to gain the status of an associate EU member because it would bring in more foreign direct investments.

Miroljub Labus

During a visit to Kraljevo, as part of the ‘Europe Knocks on Your Door’ campaign, Labus said that Serbia could be granted associate membership as early as next year and become a candidate country in 2008.

Labus, Slovak Ambassador to Serbia-Montenegro Igor Furdik, and Head of the Serbian EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic spoke to Kraljevo officials and businesspeople, after which they also visited the local health centre.

Labus told a press conference that he would be very happy if Serbia could repeat the “Slovak model” of EU accession. Slovakia lagged with reforms until 1998 and then it made huge progress, Labus explained and pointed out that in this way Slovakia managed to outpace many countries that had joined the EU earlier.

Labus also said that he and representatives of local authorities in Kraljevo discussed the relations between local governments and the Serbian government, with a special emphasis on the decentralisation of power.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that they discussed financing local projects, of which the most important is for supplying clean water to the region in a project costing € 7.5 million.

Labus appealed for this project to be formulated as soon as possible so that the Serbian government could give guarantees to the European Investment Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Labus said that the economy should be more export oriented, in order to further help the development of the entire Kraljevo region. He explained that Serbia ought to be in the EU in order to have access to a larger market and reminded that 70 percent of export already goes to the EU.

Slovak Ambassador Furdik recognised the realistic approach that Kraljevo businesspeople and local officials take to address their problems, adding that Serbia should not be discouraged as Slovakia had similar experiences and that it is important to complete privatisation and implement business plans.

Secretary of the Serbian government's EU Integration Office Tanja Miscevic reminded that the goal of the campaign ‘Europe Knocks on Your Door’ is to better explain Serbia’s position and aims in the process of European integrations, and emphasised that this must be clear to each citizen.