Serbia should apply for a candidate status in the European Union in April this year, one year after it signed a pre-membership agreement with the 27-memberbloc, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said on Monday.
In an interview with television channel Avala, Cvetkovic said that Serbia would also ask for its inclusion in the White Schengen List, which means visa regime liberalization for Serbian citizens to travel to Schengen nations.
He said that preparations for these two applications were prepared by the country's Council for European Integration and elections to the new EU parliament will be held this year, which will somewhat postpone discussions on Serbia's requests.
However, Cvetkovic believed that the European Union would give a positive response to Serbian requests in 2010.
He said that certain technical conditions need to be met in order to have Serbia included in the White Schengen List, which should be completed, most likely, by the end of April this year.
In April 2008, Serbia signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union, which is seen as the first crucial step in the long process of joining the bloc.
However, the implementation of the SAA hinges on Serbia's full cooperation with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which means the arrest and extradition of war crimes suspects former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.
Ksenija Milivojevic, advisor to Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integrations, said on Monday that Serbia is at this moment practically ready for the EU membership candidate status, only as far as technical criteria are concerned, but that it continues to face a political condition - cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, which, according to the Netherlands, remains to be fully met.
In an interview to the B92 TV station, Milivojevic said that the first EU expert missions were expected to come to Serbia early in February to evaluate the work on fulfilling of criteria which are related to the visa regime liberalization.
Serbia hopes to join the EU by 2014. The Czech Republic, which took over the EU presidency on January 1, has announced to give priority to the integration of Serbia and other Western Balkan states.
Source:Xinhua
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