Đelić: Time to close Hague cooperation

Deputy PM Božidar Đelić says it is time Serbia concluded cooperation with the Hague, as this is the only condition for Serbia's further progress towards the EU.

Izvor: Blic

Friday, 07.11.2008.

11:14

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Deputy PM Bozidar Djelic says it is time Serbia concluded cooperation with the Hague, as this is the only condition for Serbia's further progress towards the EU. “Serbia is capable and ready to fulfill the conditions, but uncertainty rests with the key condition—completing cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. This has been going on for years, and it's time we finished with it,” Djelic told Belgrade daily Blic. Djelic: Time to close Hague cooperation He said that Serbia was capable of fulfilling all the other conditions that the European Commission had put forward in its report. “I have only one thing to say—Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told the EU foreign ministers, which was also confirmed in my talks in France, that Serbia should do everything in its power to complete cooperation with the Hague. In this context, I called on the Europeans to unfreeze implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) at the end of the French EU presidency,” Djelic said. The minister said that he was “impatiently looking forward to the day when we send our application for candidate status,“ and also to “the important day when the policeman at Nikola Tesla Airport no longer asks for a Schengen visa, or for that matter, his counterpart in Germany or any other EU state.“ “I can’t guarantee the exact date because the job that faces us doesn’t depend only on me. But I can say that that day is coming closer and that all the efforts we’ve invested will bear fruit, most probably in 2009,“ he said. According to Djelic, it was not true that deployment of the EULEX mission was a condition for unblocking the SAA, nor would Kosovo ever be set as a condition for European integration. “The Europeans know that this would be counter-productive. The EU is divided on the issue of Kosovo and five members have not recognized it. That means that EULEX can be nothing other than status neutral as it is backed by countries that oppose independence. Our second condition is that the mission should be approved by the UN Security Council. November 11 is the new deadline, and I hope that by then that issue will be settled through the talks that are under way,“ said the deputy prime minister. Bozidar Djelic (FoNet, archive)

Đelić: Time to close Hague cooperation

He said that Serbia was capable of fulfilling all the other conditions that the European Commission had put forward in its report.

“I have only one thing to say—Hague Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told the EU foreign ministers, which was also confirmed in my talks in France, that Serbia should do everything in its power to complete cooperation with the Hague. In this context, I called on the Europeans to unfreeze implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) at the end of the French EU presidency,” Đelić said.

The minister said that he was “impatiently looking forward to the day when we send our application for candidate status,“ and also to “the important day when the policeman at Nikola Tesla Airport no longer asks for a Schengen visa, or for that matter, his counterpart in Germany or any other EU state.“

“I can’t guarantee the exact date because the job that faces us doesn’t depend only on me. But I can say that that day is coming closer and that all the efforts we’ve invested will bear fruit, most probably in 2009,“ he said.

According to Đelić, it was not true that deployment of the EULEX mission was a condition for unblocking the SAA, nor would Kosovo ever be set as a condition for European integration.

“The Europeans know that this would be counter-productive. The EU is divided on the issue of Kosovo and five members have not recognized it. That means that EULEX can be nothing other than status neutral as it is backed by countries that oppose independence. Our second condition is that the mission should be approved by the UN Security Council. November 11 is the new deadline, and I hope that by then that issue will be settled through the talks that are under way,“ said the deputy prime minister.

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