Visas to be scrapped by end of year

The EU Council of Ministers has approved the European Commission’s plans to scrap visas for several countries in the Western Balkans. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said that senior EU officials would be discussing the unfreezing of the Interim Trade Agreement on Thursday and Friday. Visas to be scrapped by end of year “It was proposed that certain parts of this agreement be unfrozen. However, 25 member-states did not want to accept such a proposal, but wanted the entire agreement to be unfrozen at the same time,” Djelic said. Serbia signed the Interim Trade Agreement and the SAA with the EU in April of last year. Meanwhile, the European Commission has received the green light from the Council of Ministers to finalize procedures that would culminate at the end of the year with the scrapping of visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, as announced earlier by EC Commissioner Jacques Barrot . The second bit of good news from Luxembourg are reports that Serbia’s stabilization and association process could also be unfrozen. This discussion was preceded by a lunch with Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, where he spoke about progress that Belgrade had made in cooperation with the Hague prosecution. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout confirmed earlier that the conversation between Brammertz and Union officials had been helpful. “These are informal talks with the goal of speaking openly and honestly about the topic. We did not expect anything spectacular, but I have a feeling that we are closer to a better understanding of what we want to do, what the overwhelming majority wants. I cannot say that the Council will not be talking about this again,” Kohout said. B92 has learned that the report that Brammertz submitted to the EU ministers was more positive than the one sent earlier to the UN Security Council. The prosecutor said that he was convinced that the Serbian government was committed to arresting the remaining Hague fugitives, especially Ratko Mladic, and that its security services were working on this intensively. Brammertz also commented on the footage released by Bosnian media last week as proof that Mladic was still hiding in Serbia. He said that these were old videos and photographs, that they were known to the prosecution, and that they had been given to the Hague Tribunal by the Serbian government, which, he said, was further proof that Belgrade had made progress in its cooperation. Drazen Maravic, the head of the Interior Ministry’s European Integration Bureau, said that Serbia would find out in late July what it still had to do in order to completely close the issue of visa liberalization. He told daily Politika that the European Commission would give the Serbian government a list of remaining obligations that needed to be met by October. The process of putting Serbia on the Schengen white list would then begin, with the final decision to abolish visas most likely coming in December. Implementation would begin in early 2010, Maravic said. Serge Brammertz (FoNet, archive)

Visas to be scrapped by end of year

“It was proposed that certain parts of this agreement be unfrozen. However, 25 member-states did not want to accept such a proposal, but wanted the entire agreement to be unfrozen at the same time,” Đelic said.

Serbia signed the Interim Trade Agreement and the SAA with the EU in April of last year.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has received the green light from the Council of Ministers to finalize procedures that would culminate at the end of the year with the scrapping of visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, as announced earlier by EC Commissioner Jacques Barrot .

The second bit of good news from Luxembourg are reports that Serbia’s stabilization and association process could also be unfrozen.

This discussion was preceded by a lunch with Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, where he spoke about progress that Belgrade had made in cooperation with the Hague prosecution.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout confirmed earlier that the conversation between Brammertz and Union officials had been helpful.

“These are informal talks with the goal of speaking openly and honestly about the topic. We did not expect anything spectacular, but I have a feeling that we are closer to a better understanding of what we want to do, what the overwhelming majority wants. I cannot say that the Council will not be talking about this again,” Kohout said.

B92 has learned that the report that Brammertz submitted to the EU ministers was more positive than the one sent earlier to the UN Security Council.

The prosecutor said that he was convinced that the Serbian government was committed to arresting the remaining Hague fugitives, especially Ratko Mladić, and that its security services were working on this intensively.

Brammertz also commented on the footage released by Bosnian media last week as proof that Mladić was still hiding in Serbia.

He said that these were old videos and photographs, that they were known to the prosecution, and that they had been given to the Hague Tribunal by the Serbian government, which, he said, was further proof that Belgrade had made progress in its cooperation.

Dražen Maravić, the head of the Interior Ministry’s European Integration Bureau, said that Serbia would find out in late July what it still had to do in order to completely close the issue of visa liberalization.

He told daily Politika that the European Commission would give the Serbian government a list of remaining obligations that needed to be met by October.

The process of putting Serbia on the Schengen white list would then begin, with the final decision to abolish visas most likely coming in December. Implementation would begin in early 2010, Maravić said.