Rehn seeking way to unfreeze trade deal

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn says that Brussels is looking for a way to unfreeze the Interim Trade Agreement with Serbia. He said that he had long believed that Serbia was doing everything it could to try and arrest the two remaining war crimes fugitives, Goran Hazic and Ratko Mladic, and to extradite them to the Hague Tribunal. Rehn seeking way to unfreeze trade deal “We had an exhaustive debate on this last Monday in Luxembourg, at the meeting of the EU Council. Contact will continue and we will see how we could bring about the entry into force of the interim agreement,” Rehn said last night, after talking to South-East European students at European Commission headquarters in Brussels. However, he said that Serbia must convince the key factors and EU decision-makers of this too. “I think that the unfreezing of the Interim Agreement will have a positive, not negative, impact on Serbia’s cooperation with The Hague,” the commissioner said. He told reporters that, in the short-term, relations between Belgrade and Brussels would focus on abolishing visas for Serbian citizens. The commissioner said that he expected Serbia to fulfill all the remaining conditions for the white Schengen in the coming six months, meaning that Serbian citizens would be able to travel through the EU without visas starting January 2010.

Rehn seeking way to unfreeze trade deal

“We had an exhaustive debate on this last Monday in Luxembourg, at the meeting of the EU Council. Contact will continue and we will see how we could bring about the entry into force of the interim agreement,” Rehn said last night, after talking to South-East European students at European Commission headquarters in Brussels.

However, he said that Serbia must convince the key factors and EU decision-makers of this too.

“I think that the unfreezing of the Interim Agreement will have a positive, not negative, impact on Serbia’s cooperation with The Hague,” the commissioner said.

He told reporters that, in the short-term, relations between Belgrade and Brussels would focus on abolishing visas for Serbian citizens.

The commissioner said that he expected Serbia to fulfill all the remaining conditions for the white Schengen in the coming six months, meaning that Serbian citizens would be able to travel through the EU without visas starting January 2010.