EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele to start Serbia visit today

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele is expected in Belgrade today. Fuele says Serbia’s candidate status request should be considered in October. He also said that the European Commission is ready to commence that process within only a few days.

During his visit, he will check the judicial reform from his collocutors in Belgrade.

The EU commissioner, who met in Brussels with Serbian Deputy PM Božidar Đelić, said he believed that the first step in the new phase of relations between the EU and Serbia would be a decision of EU member states to tell the EC to start considering Serbia’s candidate for membership.

He added that if it starts by the end of the year the process of evaluating Serbia could be ended during 2011, when the commission’s opinion would be sent back to member states who would then decide whether the time was right to start long-term and all encompassing negotiation with Serbia about entering the union.

Božidar Đelić said that Serbia expect the candidature to be on the agenda by the end of October and that Belgrade will be ready for the questionnaire from Brussels.

Tomorrow he will discuss continued EU integrations with Serbia’s President Tadić and Premier Cvetković, ministers Dačić, Jeremić, Šutanovac and Snežana Malović, and the director of the office for association, Milica Đilas.

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