Eurasia Press & News
The European Union will probably in March unfreeze a trade agreement with Serbia and ratify the pre-accession Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Luxemburg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said on Wednesday in an interview.
Serbia signed the SAA in April 2008, but there has been no consensus in the EU on its ratification. The Netherlands has until now set the extradition of the two remaining war crimes indictees, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, as a condition for Serbia’s further steps towards joining the 27-nation bloc.
“I think we shall already in March, at the next session of the EU foreign minister’s council, make a decision on the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, and on the start of implementation of the provisional trade agreement,” Asselborn said in an interview to Novi Sad’s Dnevnik daily.
“I wouldn’t go into details to avoid compromising chances, but it is absolutely possible. Just few more pieces of the puzzle are missing,” he said.
“The next step is to show Serbia that things regarding the European integrations in the region are going in a good direction and that Serbia is the key country for stability of the entire region. “
He said the ministers’ council would discuss not only Serbia, but also Montenegro and Albania. Of the former Yugoslav states, next to EU-member Slovenia only Croatia is anywhere close to EU membership.
