Presidency press release on the EU troika meeting with Serbia
Press release 248/2006
July 18, 2006
As a part of EU's enhanced engagement with Serbia, the Presidency organised an EU Troika meeting with Serbia on Monday 17th July. Serbia was represented by the Prime Minister Kostunica.
We had a fruitful discussion on Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the EU's relations with Serbia. We welcomed the Action Plan presented today by Prime Minister Kostunica on Serbia's ICTY co-operation, which contains a clear commitment to full co-operation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, including the arrest and transfer of Ratko Mladic.
We also welcomed Serbian government's decision to appoint an overall coordinator for the Action Plan, and a head of operations for conducting the search, arrest and transfer of the fugitives to The Hague. Serbia also needs to elaborate a detailed operational plan in close co-operation with the ICTY.
The Action Plan provides a good basis for further work. While understanding that the Action Plan still needs to be further developed, we underlined that effective implementation must begin immediately. The EU will monitor closely the implementation of the plan in co-ordination with the ICTY.
It is only through effective implementation of the Action Plan, leading to full co-operation with the ICTY, that the negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) can be resumed and Serbia can move further towards the EU.
On EU-Serbia relations we discussed various ways to deepen our engagement with Serbia, such as visa facilitation, the establishment of a regional free trade area, and financial support to Serbia (Instrument for Pre-Accession). We restated the EU´s commitment to Serbia´s European perspective.
We look forward to continuing enhanced dialogue with Serbia in order to support Serbia's European course. As a concrete measure, the Presidency is ready to proceed quickly with visa facilitation and readmission negotiations.