"Agreement discussion after Hague report"
Friday, 05.09.2008.
12:23
"Agreement discussion after Hague report" B92: Mr. Rehn you were present today when Mr. Barroso said that there were enough elements to unblock the Interim Agreement between Serbia and the EU based on the improved cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. How do you understand that? As his personal opinion or an opinion that you all share here? Rehn: The Commission President has his personal opinion but he also represents the view of the European Commission and yes, we have discussed this matter and we consider that the arrest of Radovan Karadzic was a milestone in Serbia’s cooperation with the ICTY and while taking into consideration the Serbia has handed over 44 out of 46 indictees so far, in our view Serbia shows that it is very committed to the full cooperation with the ICTY. And from the point of view of the European Commission this should be recognized and we should start implementing the trade related parts of the Stabilization and Association Agreement. But this is the decision that requires the unity of all member states and therefore it is in the hands of the Council of European Union and all the member states of the European Union. B92: Are you then optimistic? Rehn: I am realist. I think this shows that Serbia is taking the right steps and now it is important that Serbia will show to the ICTY and also the European Union that it is doing everything it can in order to cooperate with the ICTY, also including access to archives and documents issues related to witness protection, and that we can all be convinced that Serbia is cooperating with the ICTY on the sustained bases. We all want to close that chapter and move forward because Serbia is a key country and I know that Serbian people have very strong European orientation. And we all want to move forward when it comes to Serbia’s candidate status to the European Union. B92: Would it then be to optimistic to believe that such a decision might be achieved at the first meeting of the foreign ministers, sometime in September? Rehn: It is important that that Serbia did and does everything it can to convince all the member states and the best way of doing that is by arresting Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, both remaining indictees. It is clear that full cooperation is a necessary condition to move forward and it has to be sustained full cooperation, also in the future, so that Serbia will fully cooperate with the ICTY in the arrest of the indictees and other areas. B92: But should there be no further arrests, can Serbia hope to progress at least step or two? Rehn: Mr. Brammertz, the Chief Prosecutor will visit Belgrade next week and, of course, we will listen to his assessment of cooperation. B92: I talked to people in Serbia who are in charge for cooperation with the ICTY, Minister Rasim Ljajic, and it seemed to me that there is a bit of disappointment in Belgrade, in Serbian government. There is a sense that the efforts that have been made by the new government have not been appreciated enough, that right after the arrest of Karadzic there was immediately a new question, about the arrest of Mladic. Rehn: As I said, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic was a milestone that should be recognized, and I’ve spoken in favor of this in the Council of European Union, but we all know that this requires a unanimous decisions by the all members of the European Union. B92: But do you think that the Interim Agreement could be unblocked without the arrest of Mladic? Rehn: As I said, it is important to convince all the EU states that Serbia is fully cooperating with the ICTY and by far the best way of doing it is to arrest Ratko Mladic. B92: And if the member states would come to you, to ask for a piece of advice from you, what would you say? Go ahead, unblock it or wait until Mladic iz arrested? Rehn: I have said it already in July and I’ve repeated this on more than one occasion that in my view, that was also the view of the President of the European Commission, we should start implementing the interim agreement of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which means that that there would be economic and trade related parts of the agreement, assuming that Serbia will continue its satisfactory cooperation with the ICTY on the sustained basis in the future, so that all the remaining fugitives will be arrested. Of course, there will be other steps in the future, the ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) by the EU member states, the candidate status for Serbia, opening of the accession negotiations and all through this process we expect the full cooperation by Serbia with the ICTY. Of course, the sooner the chapter can be closed, the better. The point is that it has to be sustained. B92: One of the messages from the visit was that Brussels would like to see a national consensus on the issue of Serbia’s EU integration. Is that anyhow related to the debate that we currently have in Serbian parliament? Rehn: Well it is our general message to all candidate countries, but of course, Serbia has been somewhat divided and the political life has been rather polarized in the past. Of course we want to see the consensus for Serbia’s European objectives which is based on public opinion and the opinion of Serbian citizens. The polls show that there is 70 percent of Serbian people are in favor of the European integration, and I believe that all the political parties will take that into account. Why do we need a consensus in Serbia? Because the reforms related to the European accession are often rather demanding and for that we need the consensus in the Parliament and in the civil society. Those countries that have succeeded in the EU accession negotiations and us, members of the European Union have rather brought the consensus that contributed to the European aspirations. B92: It was encouraging today to hear your colleagues opinion, that Serbia might get the candidate status sometime next year. But I would like us to go one step at a time. When do you think Serbia could apply for that status? Rehn: This is in the first place a reform driven process. In other words it is very much in the hands of Serbia – Serbian government, parliament and ultimately the Serbian people and the civil society. First we need to see the Stabilization and Association agreement is implemented. Once there is a track record of the SAA implementation, Serbia can apply for EU membership and the Council of the EU will ask the Commission to prepare an opinion on that, and then the council would grant Serbia candidate status. This is the standard procedure for all candidate countries. I regret if I sound technocratic but these are the steps that have to be taken, which means essentially that it is a realistic scenario to assume that Serbia could assume candidate status in the course of 2009. B92: Has any country managed to achieve all that within 12 months? Rehn: It is a very ambitious time table, but the European Council said that we need to accelerate the accession process for Serbia and other countries of the Western Balkans, so we will do our utmost to accelerate this process, but again it depends on whether Serbia will be able to meet certain conditions along the way. B92: When you speak about the necessary reforms, there should be progress reports on Serbia in November. Now, we know that there was a huge gap between the election and the forming of the new government, so is it too optimistic to hope for a good report? Rehn: If there are objective grounds for that. And we will create factuous and objective report, and its contents will depend on Serbia’s track record on Serbia’s proven record on its path to the EU. B92: Is it conceivable at all that Serbia obtains candidate status without the extradition of all the Hague indictees? Rehn: We have always considered full cooperation with the ICTY as the one essential condition for the SAA to be implemented, and to obtain the candidate status. Full cooperation means that the state has to do everything it can, which should lead to the arrest of the remaining fugitives. B92: We’ve heard a lot of promises about abolishing visas for the citizens of Serbia or at least making it easier for them to obtain visas and to travel freely around Europe. Today we heard the desire of Serbian president Boris Tadic that the citizens of Serbia, hopefully, will be listed on the so-called “white Schengen list” next year. You keep pointing out that this job is very much specific and technical. How far Serbia has progressed in that respect? Rehn: Serbia made progress, but there is still some work that has to be done. The essential thing is that Serbia should meet all the security requirements, concerning, for instance, biometric passports, or integrated border control or other aspects of internal security that will convince the ministers of the European Union and in fact the citizens of the EU that it is safe to have visa free travel with Serbia. Essentially this is in the hands of the Serbian government, to make sure that these criteria will be met. I hope that this will happen rather sooner than later and we have made good progress already by having the visa facilitacion agreement enforced since the beginning of this year and now we are working very actively towards visa free travel regime. B92: Is there an area where you see a specially serious progress regarding visas facilitation process? Rehn: It is better to hear the reports of the responsible authorities. What I can say is that a progress has been made, but in some areas in internal security there are still some things that have to be done. B92: Let’s move to another topic. Mr. Rehn, I know that you’ve been asked many times and that you diplomatically avoided that subject as much as you could, I understand that… Rehn: I am very grateful when somebody calls me "diplomatic". Thank you very much for that. B92: Is and would the full cooperation with the EULEX mission in Kosovo become a pre-condition for the continuation or acceleration of Serbia’s accession process? Rehn: We wanted to keep these processes separated. The EU negotiations with Serbia and the completion process concerning Kosovo and I think that it is good to keep these two processes separated. It is, of course, our assumption that Serbia would contribute to the stability of the region and good neighborly relations in the region including regional cooperation. But as I said we want to settle one process at a time. We do not want to make unnecessary linkage between the two processes. B92: But why do we hear confusing messages from Brussels such as, how come Serbia wants to be a part of the EU, and yet, it does not want to accept the Europe’s mission in Kosovo. It is puzzling, and it does send us a good signal. Rehn: The EULEX mission in Kosovo is devoted to the rule of law and its enforcement. It is in fact the status control and it is important for everybody in the region and in Europe because it is insuring the rule of law, working to insure the rule of law in Kosovo for all citizens of Kosovo, from all communities of Kosovo. And therefore, the success of the EULEX civilian mission is in the interest of Serbia, the European Union and everybody. B92: But, in Belgrade the success of the EULEX mission in Kosovo is seen as the success of an Albanian state within Serbia. And that seems like the biggest problem to the government in Belgrade. The Foreign Minister said today that we got nothing against Europeans being present anywhere, but we are against the Europeans being present in order to build up the independent Kosovo. Rehn: As I said, the EULEX mission the civilian mission aims at insuring the rule of law and facilitating regional stability. I think these are goals that are worth and valuable for everybody in the region and in Europe. B92: Do you mean to say that its neutral, when it comes to Kosovo status? Rehn: It is status neutral, it is working under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and its goals are clearly oriented towards regional stability. B92: Has there been any progress in the discussion with Serbian authorities when it comes to finding modus Vivendi for EULEX in the north of Kosovo and establishing the channel of communication between Belgrade and Brussels via Pristina? Rehn: Of course, we want to see that everybody in the region support the EULEX civilian mission and president of the European Commission Barroso has discussed this with President Tadic and other leaders of the Serbian government. I think it is better they comment on behalf of the Serbian government. Of course we want to have cooperation because it is in everybody’s interest, and we will ensure the rule of law and the regional stability in Kosovo. B92: And finally, the rumor has it that Brussels is very much upset with Serbia’s initiative to invite International Court of Justice to give its legal opinion on the legality of the independence of Kosovo. There were few remarks, messages sent from Europe to Serbia, the latest one came from the French Foreign Minister that if Serbia wanted European future it was very insulting that such an initiative has been launched. Rehn: The Kosovo status process has been conducted on the basis of UN Security Council 1244 Resolution and subsequent political principles and guidelines adopted by the contact group, which consists of all the permanent states of the UN Security Council, Britain, the U.S., Russia, France and China. Our work is based on these guidelines. This process needs to end, because status quo is not an acceptable solution. B92: But are you then upset with Serbia’s initiative. Rehn: It’s an issue that Serbian government and parliament would have to reflect this initiative will have on the member states of the European Union. B92: So there could be an impact? Rehn: As I said my goal is to avoid unnecessary links between the EU accession process of Serbia and Kosovo status process. But clearly it is a political decision by the Serbian government and it needs to consider the risk for the country and the impact it may have. B92: Finally, one of the EU officials who visited Serbia recently said that after what happened in Georgia, and the failure of the referendum in Ireland, that Europe has become preoccupied with other issues, relations with Russia, the fact that there are two new states recognized by Russia and contested by the EU. So where on the list of priorities is Serbia now? Rehn: Serbia is very high on my list of priorities and on Europe’s list of priorities. We want to see Serbia advance towards candidate status, then accession negotiations and then towards the EU membership. Having said that, we don’t leave political vacuum. There are external events that influence both Europe and the Balkans, and you must learn to cope with these external events and have patience and determination to move towards the EU, regardless of the external events. You should go through reforms and through improving living conditions of Serbian citizens. B92: Does the fact that Serbia is close to Russia bother you in any way? Rehn: There are many countries in Europe that have good relations with the Russian Federation, quite a number of countries including the member states, I know best, that are perhaps geographically on the periphery of Europe, but in the political core of the EU which have good economic relations with the Russian federation. One can create a win-win situation by being fully involved with the EU and have good relations with the Russian federation. There’s no necessary contradiction between these two. Of course we hope that Russia will become better partner to Europe, but in principal, this type of win-win situation is possible. I hope that Serbia would work on this model of relations. B92: So there’s no regrouping inside Europe, not only in the EU, but in Europe as a continent? There won’t be a question like, you have to take sides? Rehn: I don’t want to draw new dividing lines on the European map with thick ink, and I hope that all the others avoid doing that and refrain from creating new spheres of influences. I am more in favor of the European integration, on the basis of tolerance, democracy, prosperity and that is the kind of Europe that we would like Serbia to join. B92: From your point of view, how will this story develop technically, after Mr. Brammertz visits Belgrade and after he submits his report? What would happen then and should we expect you in Belgrade? Rehn: Let Mr. Brammertz first visit Belgrade and then we will talk about that, after he submits his report to the EU. I was planning to visit Belgrade in the second week of August. Unfortunately, the war broke in Georgia and because of that we were all preoccupied with other things. I hope that I would be able to make it to Belgrade soon and visit Serbia. B92: You met the new Prime Minister. Allegedly, you were not in good terms with the previous PM, especially in the end of his mandate. Do you think that your personal relationships with Serbian officials are going to be better now? Rehn: I don’t know where did you get these kind of rumors about the bad relations. I’m working with the Serbian government, the president and the Prime Minister and other ministers and we work towards Serbia’s European future, and I am very much looking forward to working together with president Tadic and Prime Minister Cvetkovic and other ministers in the government, as well as with other parties in Serbia’s parliament towards the European objectives. The transcript of the B92 TV interview with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. Guest: Olli Rehn Journalist: Ljubica Gojgic "We wanted to keep these processes separated, the EU negotiations with Serbia and the completion process concerning Kosovo, and I think that it is good to keep these two processes separated. "
"Agreement discussion after Hague report"
B92: Mr. Rehn you were present today when Mr. Barroso said that there were enough elements to unblock the Interim Agreement between Serbia and the EU based on the improved cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. How do you understand that? As his personal opinion or an opinion that you all share here?Rehn: The Commission President has his personal opinion but he also represents the view of the European Commission and yes, we have discussed this matter and we consider that the arrest of Radovan Karadžić was a milestone in Serbia’s cooperation with the ICTY and while taking into consideration the Serbia has handed over 44 out of 46 indictees so far, in our view Serbia shows that it is very committed to the full cooperation with the ICTY. And from the point of view of the European Commission this should be recognized and we should start implementing the trade related parts of the Stabilization and Association Agreement. But this is the decision that requires the unity of all member states and therefore it is in the hands of the Council of European Union and all the member states of the European Union.
B92: Are you then optimistic?
Rehn: I am realist. I think this shows that Serbia is taking the right steps and now it is important that Serbia will show to the ICTY and also the European Union that it is doing everything it can in order to cooperate with the ICTY, also including access to archives and documents issues related to witness protection, and that we can all be convinced that Serbia is cooperating with the ICTY on the sustained bases. We all want to close that chapter and move forward because Serbia is a key country and I know that Serbian people have very strong European orientation. And we all want to move forward when it comes to Serbia’s candidate status to the European Union.
B92: Would it then be to optimistic to believe that such a decision might be achieved at the first meeting of the foreign ministers, sometime in September?
Rehn: It is important that that Serbia did and does everything it can to convince all the member states and the best way of doing that is by arresting Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić, both remaining indictees. It is clear that full cooperation is a necessary condition to move forward and it has to be sustained full cooperation, also in the future, so that Serbia will fully cooperate with the ICTY in the arrest of the indictees and other areas.
B92: But should there be no further arrests, can Serbia hope to progress at least step or two?
Rehn: Mr. Brammertz, the Chief Prosecutor will visit Belgrade next week and, of course, we will listen to his assessment of cooperation.
B92: I talked to people in Serbia who are in charge for cooperation with the ICTY, Minister Rasim Ljajić, and it seemed to me that there is a bit of disappointment in Belgrade, in Serbian government. There is a sense that the efforts that have been made by the new government have not been appreciated enough, that right after the arrest of Karadžić there was immediately a new question, about the arrest of Mladić.
Rehn: As I said, the arrest of Radovan Karadžić was a milestone that should be recognized, and I’ve spoken in favor of this in the Council of European Union, but we all know that this requires a unanimous decisions by the all members of the European Union.
B92: But do you think that the Interim Agreement could be unblocked without the arrest of Mladić?
Rehn: As I said, it is important to convince all the EU states that Serbia is fully cooperating with the ICTY and by far the best way of doing it is to arrest Ratko Mladić.
B92: And if the member states would come to you, to ask for a piece of advice from you, what would you say? Go ahead, unblock it or wait until Mladić iz arrested?
Rehn: I have said it already in July and I’ve repeated this on more than one occasion that in my view, that was also the view of the President of the European Commission, we should start implementing the interim agreement of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which means that that there would be economic and trade related parts of the agreement, assuming that Serbia will continue its satisfactory cooperation with the ICTY on the sustained basis in the future, so that all the remaining fugitives will be arrested. Of course, there will be other steps in the future, the ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) by the EU member states, the candidate status for Serbia, opening of the accession negotiations and all through this process we expect the full cooperation by Serbia with the ICTY. Of course, the sooner the chapter can be closed, the better. The point is that it has to be sustained.
B92: One of the messages from the visit was that Brussels would like to see a national consensus on the issue of Serbia’s EU integration. Is that anyhow related to the debate that we currently have in Serbian parliament?
Rehn: Well it is our general message to all candidate countries, but of course, Serbia has been somewhat divided and the political life has been rather polarized in the past. Of course we want to see the consensus for Serbia’s European objectives which is based on public opinion and the opinion of Serbian citizens. The polls show that there is 70 percent of Serbian people are in favor of the European integration, and I believe that all the political parties will take that into account. Why do we need a consensus in Serbia? Because the reforms related to the European accession are often rather demanding and for that we need the consensus in the Parliament and in the civil society. Those countries that have succeeded in the EU accession negotiations and us, members of the European Union have rather brought the consensus that contributed to the European aspirations.
B92: It was encouraging today to hear your colleagues opinion, that Serbia might get the candidate status sometime next year. But I would like us to go one step at a time. When do you think Serbia could apply for that status?
Rehn: This is in the first place a reform driven process. In other words it is very much in the hands of Serbia – Serbian government, parliament and ultimately the Serbian people and the civil society. First we need to see the Stabilization and Association agreement is implemented. Once there is a track record of the SAA implementation, Serbia can apply for EU membership and the Council of the EU will ask the Commission to prepare an opinion on that, and then the council would grant Serbia candidate status. This is the standard procedure for all candidate countries. I regret if I sound technocratic but these are the steps that have to be taken, which means essentially that it is a realistic scenario to assume that Serbia could assume candidate status in the course of 2009.
B92: Has any country managed to achieve all that within 12 months?
Rehn: It is a very ambitious time table, but the European Council said that we need to accelerate the accession process for Serbia and other countries of the Western Balkans, so we will do our utmost to accelerate this process, but again it depends on whether Serbia will be able to meet certain conditions along the way.
B92: When you speak about the necessary reforms, there should be progress reports on Serbia in November. Now, we know that there was a huge gap between the election and the forming of the new government, so is it too optimistic to hope for a good report?
Rehn: If there are objective grounds for that. And we will create factuous and objective report, and its contents will depend on Serbia’s track record on Serbia’s proven record on its path to the EU.
B92: Is it conceivable at all that Serbia obtains candidate status without the extradition of all the Hague indictees?
Rehn: We have always considered full cooperation with the ICTY as the one essential condition for the SAA to be implemented, and to obtain the candidate status. Full cooperation means that the state has to do everything it can, which should lead to the arrest of the remaining fugitives.
B92: We’ve heard a lot of promises about abolishing visas for the citizens of Serbia or at least making it easier for them to obtain visas and to travel freely around Europe. Today we heard the desire of Serbian president Boris Tadić that the citizens of Serbia, hopefully, will be listed on the so-called “white Schengen list” next year. You keep pointing out that this job is very much specific and technical. How far Serbia has progressed in that respect?
Rehn: Serbia made progress, but there is still some work that has to be done. The essential thing is that Serbia should meet all the security requirements, concerning, for instance, biometric passports, or integrated border control or other aspects of internal security that will convince the ministers of the European Union and in fact the citizens of the EU that it is safe to have visa free travel with Serbia. Essentially this is in the hands of the Serbian government, to make sure that these criteria will be met. I hope that this will happen rather sooner than later and we have made good progress already by having the visa facilitacion agreement enforced since the beginning of this year and now we are working very actively towards visa free travel regime.
B92: Is there an area where you see a specially serious progress regarding visas facilitation process?
Rehn: It is better to hear the reports of the responsible authorities. What I can say is that a progress has been made, but in some areas in internal security there are still some things that have to be done.
B92: Let’s move to another topic. Mr. Rehn, I know that you’ve been asked many times and that you diplomatically avoided that subject as much as you could, I understand that…
Rehn: I am very grateful when somebody calls me "diplomatic". Thank you very much for that.
B92: Is and would the full cooperation with the EULEX mission in Kosovo become a pre-condition for the continuation or acceleration of Serbia’s accession process?
Rehn: We wanted to keep these processes separated. The EU negotiations with Serbia and the completion process concerning Kosovo and I think that it is good to keep these two processes separated. It is, of course, our assumption that Serbia would contribute to the stability of the region and good neighborly relations in the region including regional cooperation. But as I said we want to settle one process at a time. We do not want to make unnecessary linkage between the two processes.
B92: But why do we hear confusing messages from Brussels such as, how come Serbia wants to be a part of the EU, and yet, it does not want to accept the Europe’s mission in Kosovo. It is puzzling, and it does send us a good signal.
Rehn: The EULEX mission in Kosovo is devoted to the rule of law and its enforcement. It is in fact the status control and it is important for everybody in the region and in Europe because it is insuring the rule of law, working to insure the rule of law in Kosovo for all citizens of Kosovo, from all communities of Kosovo. And therefore, the success of the EULEX civilian mission is in the interest of Serbia, the European Union and everybody.
B92: But, in Belgrade the success of the EULEX mission in Kosovo is seen as the success of an Albanian state within Serbia. And that seems like the biggest problem to the government in Belgrade. The Foreign Minister said today that we got nothing against Europeans being present anywhere, but we are against the Europeans being present in order to build up the independent Kosovo.
Rehn: As I said, the EULEX mission the civilian mission aims at insuring the rule of law and facilitating regional stability. I think these are goals that are worth and valuable for everybody in the region and in Europe.
B92: Do you mean to say that its neutral, when it comes to Kosovo status?
Rehn: It is status neutral, it is working under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and its goals are clearly oriented towards regional stability.
B92: Has there been any progress in the discussion with Serbian authorities when it comes to finding modus Vivendi for EULEX in the north of Kosovo and establishing the channel of communication between Belgrade and Brussels via Priština?
Rehn: Of course, we want to see that everybody in the region support the EULEX civilian mission and president of the European Commission Barroso has discussed this with President Tadić and other leaders of the Serbian government. I think it is better they comment on behalf of the Serbian government. Of course we want to have cooperation because it is in everybody’s interest, and we will ensure the rule of law and the regional stability in Kosovo.
B92: And finally, the rumor has it that Brussels is very much upset with Serbia’s initiative to invite International Court of Justice to give its legal opinion on the legality of the independence of Kosovo. There were few remarks, messages sent from Europe to Serbia, the latest one came from the French Foreign Minister that if Serbia wanted European future it was very insulting that such an initiative has been launched.
Rehn: The Kosovo status process has been conducted on the basis of UN Security Council 1244 Resolution and subsequent political principles and guidelines adopted by the contact group, which consists of all the permanent states of the UN Security Council, Britain, the U.S., Russia, France and China. Our work is based on these guidelines. This process needs to end, because status quo is not an acceptable solution.
B92: But are you then upset with Serbia’s initiative.
Rehn: It’s an issue that Serbian government and parliament would have to reflect this initiative will have on the member states of the European Union.
B92: So there could be an impact?
Rehn: As I said my goal is to avoid unnecessary links between the EU accession process of Serbia and Kosovo status process. But clearly it is a political decision by the Serbian government and it needs to consider the risk for the country and the impact it may have.
B92: Finally, one of the EU officials who visited Serbia recently said that after what happened in Georgia, and the failure of the referendum in Ireland, that Europe has become preoccupied with other issues, relations with Russia, the fact that there are two new states recognized by Russia and contested by the EU. So where on the list of priorities is Serbia now?
Rehn: Serbia is very high on my list of priorities and on Europe’s list of priorities. We want to see Serbia advance towards candidate status, then accession negotiations and then towards the EU membership.
Having said that, we don’t leave political vacuum. There are external events that influence both Europe and the Balkans, and you must learn to cope with these external events and have patience and determination to move towards the EU, regardless of the external events. You should go through reforms and through improving living conditions of Serbian citizens.
B92: Does the fact that Serbia is close to Russia bother you in any way?
Rehn: There are many countries in Europe that have good relations with the Russian Federation, quite a number of countries including the member states, I know best, that are perhaps geographically on the periphery of Europe, but in the political core of the EU which have good economic relations with the Russian federation. One can create a win-win situation by being fully involved with the EU and have good relations with the Russian federation. There’s no necessary contradiction between these two. Of course we hope that Russia will become better partner to Europe, but in principal, this type of win-win situation is possible. I hope that Serbia would work on this model of relations.
B92: So there’s no regrouping inside Europe, not only in the EU, but in Europe as a continent? There won’t be a question like, you have to take sides?
Rehn: I don’t want to draw new dividing lines on the European map with thick ink, and I hope that all the others avoid doing that and refrain from creating new spheres of influences. I am more in favor of the European integration, on the basis of tolerance, democracy, prosperity and that is the kind of Europe that we would like Serbia to join.
B92: From your point of view, how will this story develop technically, after Mr. Brammertz visits Belgrade and after he submits his report? What would happen then and should we expect you in Belgrade?
Rehn: Let Mr. Brammertz first visit Belgrade and then we will talk about that, after he submits his report to the EU. I was planning to visit Belgrade in the second week of August. Unfortunately, the war broke in Georgia and because of that we were all preoccupied with other things. I hope that I would be able to make it to Belgrade soon and visit Serbia.
B92: You met the new Prime Minister. Allegedly, you were not in good terms with the previous PM, especially in the end of his mandate. Do you think that your personal relationships with Serbian officials are going to be better now?
Rehn: I don’t know where did you get these kind of rumors about the bad relations. I’m working with the Serbian government, the president and the Prime Minister and other ministers and we work towards Serbia’s European future, and I am very much looking forward to working together with president Tadić and Prime Minister Cvetković and other ministers in the government, as well as with other parties in Serbia’s parliament towards the European objectives.
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