Serbia, EU renew SAA talks

Serbia, EU renew SAA talks

Before the official round begins, director of the Government's European Integration Office Tanja Miščević and European Commission official Therese Sobieski will look at the SAA contents on a technical level so that all topics of discussion are agreed upon.

Miščević reminded that Serbia's negotiation team has already reach agreements on 80 percent of the document. Questions regarding export of meat products, customs regulations, and security, weapons control and human rights issues will be on the agenda today.

Tanja Miščević told B92 that Serbia’s goal was to finish the technical discussions by the end of July.

“According to our calculations, we will need two technical and two official rounds of talks. This is one of the official ones. The second is needed to agree on the entire text, and we believe that the two technical rounds will be enough for discussing annexes and protocols. We also propose that experts meet in between each meeting. At this pace we can finish the talks by the end of July,” Miščević said.

Đelić told B92 that the goal of the government was to get Serbia onto the white Schengen list by 2009, which will enable its citizens to travel in all the EU countries without a visa.

Progress of EU applicant countries is overseen by the European Commission, whose positive 2005 feasibility study led the way for the opening of SAA negotiations with Serbia in the same year. 

Although the talks were frozen in May of 2006 due to Serbia's lack of compliance with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), they were restarted on June 13, 2007. 

The Commission Officials however pointed out that their continuation was dependent on Serbia's cooperation with ICTY, specifically in delivering the remaining war crimes fugitives. 

The SAA leads to candidate country status, the final step before becoming a full member of the European Union.

Koštunica: EU should display spirit of partnership

Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica said that the resumption of SAA negotiations offered a good opportunity for the EU to “clearly display a spirit of partnership in relations with Serbia, which implies full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia.”

“That is why we expect that, in accordance with the principle of equality of all European countries, the EU supports Serbia’s demand that the UN Charter which guarantees the inviolability of borders of all internationally recognized states is respected,” Koštunica was reported as saying on the government web site.

“Serbia also expects from the EU to fully respect the Resolution 1244 which is binding for all governments of UN member countries and which explicitly confirms that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia,” the written statement issued Wednesday continued.

“The Serbian government has repeatedly stated that it will fulfill all generally accepted European standards in the process of European integration, but at the same time we strongly insist that the EU respects our internationally recognized borders and that Kosovo-Metohija is an unalienable and integral part of Serbian territory,” Koštunica’s statement concludes.