“U.S. supports Serbia’s EU bid”

U.S. has supported Serbia’s candidacy bid ahead of the EU decision on Monday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman told B92. He said that the U.S. had positively assessed Serbia’s cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and therefore sent a signal to the EU that it supported Serbia’s candidacy bid. “U.S. supports Serbia’s EU bid” Countryman pointed out that progress was visible in Serbia but that the biggest obstacle on its EU path was combat against organized crime and corruption. The high U.S. official began his career nearly three decades ago at the U.S. embassy in Belgrade. He explained in fluent Serbian that he was very pleased that the Serbian people had decided to embrace European future and that the current U.S. administration was advocating it as well. “We are not involved in those decisions, we rarely interfere with the EU, but in this case we did. We gave a positive assessment so they would know that we are supporting the expected step in Brussels, we were clear, but what will happen – I don’t know,” Countryman stressed. He says that one of the obstacles on Serbia’s road toward the EU is organized crime. “It’s very important that we saw that there are big criminals in prisons and that there is a new law in Serbia on property seizure and that’s very important. We can see cooperation of the criminals in the Balkans, but I see that there is cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, Macedonia, everybody’s working together against smuggling of either drugs or weapons, and if necessary we’re here with advice and a little bit of money,” he pointed out. He thinks that security situation in Kosovo is good because there are fewer ethnically motivated incidents. NATO forces will remain in Kosovo as long as they are needed and the U.S. is ready to participate in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina if invited, the deputy assistant secretary of state stressed. He hopes that there are ways to expand cooperation between Serbia and NATO even though the alliance is still frowned upon due to bombing. “I understand quite well why NATO is not the most popular and we are very positively assessing military and police officers in peacekeeping missions,” the high U.S. official stressed. He thinks nothing less of the work of local police officers during gay Pride Parade. “Every country has its hooligans who want to use violence, either without a reason or for political purposes. We’re impressed with what Serbian police did – they defended a minority and a capital and Serbian police officers are heroes,” Countryman concluded. Thomas Countryman and Ivica Dacic (Tanjug, file)

“U.S. supports Serbia’s EU bid”

Countryman pointed out that progress was visible in Serbia but that the biggest obstacle on its EU path was combat against organized crime and corruption.

The high U.S. official began his career nearly three decades ago at the U.S. embassy in Belgrade.

He explained in fluent Serbian that he was very pleased that the Serbian people had decided to embrace European future and that the current U.S. administration was advocating it as well.

“We are not involved in those decisions, we rarely interfere with the EU, but in this case we did. We gave a positive assessment so they would know that we are supporting the expected step in Brussels, we were clear, but what will happen – I don’t know,” Countryman stressed.

He says that one of the obstacles on Serbia’s road toward the EU is organized crime.

“It’s very important that we saw that there are big criminals in prisons and that there is a new law in Serbia on property seizure and that’s very important. We can see cooperation of the criminals in the Balkans, but I see that there is cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, Macedonia, everybody’s working together against smuggling of either drugs or weapons, and if necessary we’re here with advice and a little bit of money,” he pointed out.

He thinks that security situation in Kosovo is good because there are fewer ethnically motivated incidents. NATO forces will remain in Kosovo as long as they are needed and the U.S. is ready to participate in negotiations between Belgrade and Priština if invited, the deputy assistant secretary of state stressed.

He hopes that there are ways to expand cooperation between Serbia and NATO even though the alliance is still frowned upon due to bombing.

“I understand quite well why NATO is not the most popular and we are very positively assessing military and police officers in peacekeeping missions,” the high U.S. official stressed.

He thinks nothing less of the work of local police officers during gay Pride Parade.

“Every country has its hooligans who want to use violence, either without a reason or for political purposes. We’re impressed with what Serbian police did – they defended a minority and a capital and Serbian police officers are heroes,” Countryman concluded.