“Candidate status in 2011 questionable”

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert has stated that there is a high possibility that Serbia will not get the EU candidate status by year's end. He told daily Blic that citizens of Serbia should not share politicians’ optimism regarding the EU integration. “Candidate status in 2011 questionable” “It is only one out of three possible scenarios, but it should not be ruled out. Everything is in Serbia’s hands now,” Degert pointed out. “We are on a deadline, it is already mid-March, and European Commission’s opinion which is crucial for obtaining the candidate status will arrive in October. I hope that the Serbian government will be very dynamic in the future period,” he was quoted as saying. The head of the EU delegation explained that there was also a possibility that the candidate status would be conditioned by certain reforms and that the government would have to fulfill the planned goal by the end of the year and that way enable the country to get the EU candidate status, which was the case with Montenegro last year. When asked whether Serbia, if it received the EU candidate status, could also expect a date for the beginning of the accession negotiations, Degert said that everything depended on Serbia but that “expectations should not be set too high”. “It is not only a matter of the government, but also parliament, as well as readiness of the society itself to show that it is willing to be reformed,” he pointed out. “It’s not impossible, it has happened in the past, but we know that aside from the need for internal reforms there are also disputable issues in Serbia that one must think about, and that’s primarily the level of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, adoption of some of the most difficult measures and continuation of difficult structural reforms,” the EU delegation chief stressed. He added that he expected the reshuffled Serbian government to continue its work “already today if not even yesterday” and implement reforms that were mentioned in the Action plan. Degert has assessed that questions from the EC questionnaire form a good basis for further work because “we have found that important political decisions still have not been made in certain areas and that there are certain discrepancies”. He also pointed out problems regarding restitution of nationalized property. When asked to comment on more frequent meetings between Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) leader Tomislav Nikolic and the EU representatives, he said that it was nothing new or surprising. “We welcome the pro-European position taken by the SNS and it is clear that Nikolic and his party support Serbia’s European path,” Degert explained and added that the EU would continue a constructive dialogue with the SNS. Vincent Degert (FoNet, file)

“Candidate status in 2011 questionable”

“It is only one out of three possible scenarios, but it should not be ruled out. Everything is in Serbia’s hands now,” Degert pointed out.

“We are on a deadline, it is already mid-March, and European Commission’s opinion which is crucial for obtaining the candidate status will arrive in October. I hope that the Serbian government will be very dynamic in the future period,” he was quoted as saying.

The head of the EU delegation explained that there was also a possibility that the candidate status would be conditioned by certain reforms and that the government would have to fulfill the planned goal by the end of the year and that way enable the country to get the EU candidate status, which was the case with Montenegro last year.

When asked whether Serbia, if it received the EU candidate status, could also expect a date for the beginning of the accession negotiations, Degert said that everything depended on Serbia but that “expectations should not be set too high”.

“It is not only a matter of the government, but also parliament, as well as readiness of the society itself to show that it is willing to be reformed,” he pointed out.

“It’s not impossible, it has happened in the past, but we know that aside from the need for internal reforms there are also disputable issues in Serbia that one must think about, and that’s primarily the level of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, adoption of some of the most difficult measures and continuation of difficult structural reforms,” the EU delegation chief stressed.

He added that he expected the reshuffled Serbian government to continue its work “already today if not even yesterday” and implement reforms that were mentioned in the Action plan.

Degert has assessed that questions from the EC questionnaire form a good basis for further work because “we have found that important political decisions still have not been made in certain areas and that there are certain discrepancies”. He also pointed out problems regarding restitution of nationalized property.

When asked to comment on more frequent meetings between Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) leader Tomislav Nikolić and the EU representatives, he said that it was nothing new or surprising.

“We welcome the pro-European position taken by the SNS and it is clear that Nikolić and his party support Serbia’s European path,” Degert explained and added that the EU would continue a constructive dialogue with the SNS.