Serbia expects to get date for starting negotiations on EU membership by year’s end

Belgrade, 27 May 2011 – Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic said today that following the arrest of Ratko Mladic and additional reforms to be undertaken, Serbia expects to get the date for starting negotiations on EU membership by year’s end.

Djelic addressed the Council of members of the European Movement International by saying that after the decisive action in the field of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serbia expects to get the date for starting negotiations and not just the candidate status.

He said that Serbia's goal is to fulfill a large part of the action plan for acquiring EU candidate status by the end of June.

We have 96 items on the agenda, some can be resolved this year and some such as the fight against corruption represent a whole process, said the Deputy Prime Minister.

He said that he talked today with chairman of the working group for drafting a bill on property and income of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and local self-governments Bojan Kostres and announced that a working group for drafting a law on restitution will be formed soon.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the results of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina are expected, but they are not a condition for the next step in European integration of Serbia.

Serbia wants to solve the Kosovo issue and to achieve a historic compromise between Serbs and Albanians. We see dialogue as a way to come to final resolution of this very serious issue, said Djelic.

Djelic said that it is a great honour for Serbia that the European Movement International, the most important political NGOs in Europe, is holding its meeting for the first time outside of the EU, in Belgrade.

European Movement International is one of the oldest pan-European civil associations founded in 1948, and the European Movement in Serbia is a member of the European Movement International since 1993.

The two-day meeting in the Serbian parliament, which began today, is also attended by Head of EU Delegation in Serbia Vincent Degert.