Visa scrapping "done deal"

Head of the European Commission (EC) Delegation to Belgrade Vincent Degert commented on EU's visa regime lifting and the interim trade deal. Ahead of the arrival of Chief Hague Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, whose report will determine whether Serbians will travel to EU countries without visas starting Jan. 1, 2010, many officials are saying that the abolishment of the visa regime is but a formality. Visa scrapping "done deal" Degert for his part explained that a technical mission was in Belgrade to conduct "last checks of the technical issues", including the issuing of biometric passports, "and the manner in which they were being issued to certain ethnic groups". "We had to have such control in place because the next meeting of the 27 EU interior ministers will be held on Dec. 1. In that meeting the ministers will ask the EC concrete questions and we must have answers to convince them that the situation here is quite satisfactory and that the conditions have been met." As for the unfreezing of the trade deal – a part of the SAA, signed between Belgrade and Brussels in April 2008 and immediately suspended – the EC head in Serbia noted the necessity of extraditions to the Hague Tribunal of Hague fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. In case the interim agreement has been activated, that condition will still be put before Serbia in the process of further EU integration. "Regarding the Interim Trade Agreement and its implementation, the condition that had been set, and that is full, satisfactory cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, that has been met, and that has been known since June, when Brammertz visited Serbia and said so in his report," Degert was quoted as saying. "I expect that after Brammertz's report the Interim Trade Agreement could be implemented. The sooner the problem is solved the easier it will be both for Serbia and the EU, integrations will go more easily," stated the EC official.

Visa scrapping "done deal"

Degert for his part explained that a technical mission was in Belgrade to conduct "last checks of the technical issues", including the issuing of biometric passports, "and the manner in which they were being issued to certain ethnic groups".

"We had to have such control in place because the next meeting of the 27 EU interior ministers will be held on Dec. 1. In that meeting the ministers will ask the EC concrete questions and we must have answers to convince them that the situation here is quite satisfactory and that the conditions have been met."

As for the unfreezing of the trade deal – a part of the SAA, signed between Belgrade and Brussels in April 2008 and immediately suspended – the EC head in Serbia noted the necessity of extraditions to the Hague Tribunal of Hague fugitives Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić.

In case the interim agreement has been activated, that condition will still be put before Serbia in the process of further EU integration.

"Regarding the Interim Trade Agreement and its implementation, the condition that had been set, and that is full, satisfactory cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, that has been met, and that has been known since June, when Brammertz visited Serbia and said so in his report," Degert was quoted as saying.

"I expect that after Brammertz's report the Interim Trade Agreement could be implemented. The sooner the problem is solved the easier it will be both for Serbia and the EU, integrations will go more easily," stated the EC official.