Steven Vanackere on Serbia’s rapprochement with the EU

Today, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere had a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić. Afterwards, the two ministers attended the working lunch organised by Prime Minister Yves Leterme for Serbian President Boris Tadić.
 
The ministers noted the excellent state of relations between Belgium and Serbia. Today, they signed a bilateral agreement on social security, and other agreements regarding investments and police cooperation are in the pipeline. They also discussed further strengthening the economic ties between the two countries.
 
The European agenda was of course a major discussion topic, due in part to Steven Vanackere’s current chairmanship of the European Union’s General Affairs Council. In recent months, Serbia has made considerable progress towards integration into the European Union. Steven Vanackere stressed the constructive role Serbia is playing in the Balkans: “I am very encouraged by the Serbian Parliament’s declaration regarding the events in Srebrenica and the much-remarked presence of President Tadić at the commemorations last weekend”. The Serbian government has also made efforts to introduce domestic reforms and cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “As I already said at the high-level conference in Sarajevo, all the Balkan countries have their fate in their own hands, so I invite Serbia to press ahead with its efforts. As Chairman of the General Affairs Council, I intend to use that as the basis for reaching a consensus with all 27 Member States on further steps in Serbia’s rapprochement with the EU”, continued Minister Vanackere.
 
Indeed, the visit of the Serbian delegation came at an important time, namely a few days before the International Criminal Tribunal issues its opinion on the status of Kosovo. Minister Vanackere expressed his hope “that all the parties involved will react in a mature and restrained fashion to the International Criminal Tribunal’s advice”. A lot also depends on the confidence-building dialogue between the Serbian and Kosovan governments about concrete measures such as a joint drive to combat organised crime and impunity and the prevention of gratuitous violence.