Jeremić: EU candidate status in 2009

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said on Monday in Belgrade that Serbia could receive EU candidate status in 2009. “I believe that in 2009 Serbia will leap over the most difficult political hurdle in the institutional sense on the road towards full-fledged European Union membership, and that is gaining candidate status. After that, there will be no more political conditions,” Jeremic told Tanjug news agency. Jeremic: EU candidate status in 2009 “After receiving candidate status, everything is up to the candidate state, it must fulfill all of the defined Copenhagen criteria for membership. I believe that Serbia has the capacity to achieve that criteria in a record time. We already have one record—in only 13 months we finished the negotiations over the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA),” he said. He said that Belgrade is not surprised that the implementation of this agreement and its ratification has not begun yet in EU member states, adding that “Serbia’s plans are unchanged”. “We know that the enlargement question is one of the hardest and most complicated questions for the EU. We have the support of a great majority of the EU members. Of 27 states in the EU, 26 believe that it is necessary to speed up Serbia’s integration process,” Jeremic told the news agency. He said that because a consensus is needed, Serbia must also convince the remaining countries that unfreezing of the SAA is necessary. Jeremic added that Serbia must continue to fulfill its domestic and international legal obligations related to cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. “The second priority is getting Serbia on the White Schengen List. I think that 2009 will be the year in which we will achieve that great success and show that Serbia is welcome in Europe and that its citizens are Europe’s citizens,” Jeremic said. He singled out the adoption of the Serbian resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s unilateral independence proclamation as the greatest success of his ministry. “Our victory at the General Assembly was the most important event in our foreign policy. Serbia achieved an important diplomatic victory—the adoption of the Serbian resolution in its integral form,” Jeremic said.

Jeremić: EU candidate status in 2009

“After receiving candidate status, everything is up to the candidate state, it must fulfill all of the defined Copenhagen criteria for membership. I believe that Serbia has the capacity to achieve that criteria in a record time. We already have one record—in only 13 months we finished the negotiations over the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA),” he said.

He said that Belgrade is not surprised that the implementation of this agreement and its ratification has not begun yet in EU member states, adding that “Serbia’s plans are unchanged”.

“We know that the enlargement question is one of the hardest and most complicated questions for the EU. We have the support of a great majority of the EU members. Of 27 states in the EU, 26 believe that it is necessary to speed up Serbia’s integration process,” Jeremić told the news agency.

He said that because a consensus is needed, Serbia must also convince the remaining countries that unfreezing of the SAA is necessary.

Jeremić added that Serbia must continue to fulfill its domestic and international legal obligations related to cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.

“The second priority is getting Serbia on the White Schengen List. I think that 2009 will be the year in which we will achieve that great success and show that Serbia is welcome in Europe and that its citizens are Europe’s citizens,” Jeremić said.

He singled out the adoption of the Serbian resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s unilateral independence proclamation as the greatest success of his ministry.

“Our victory at the General Assembly was the most important event in our foreign policy. Serbia achieved an important diplomatic victory—the adoption of the Serbian resolution in its integral form,” Jeremić said.