At the critical time of the formation of the Serbian government, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic visited Brussels. Djelic spoke to New Europe’s Editor, Alexandros Koronakis, identifying the position of his country on critical issues, and acknowledging the strengths and challenges on the Serbia’sroad to European accession.

The new Serbian government is being formed. Which direction do you expect this government to lead?

This government will pursue three key elements: First, the government will prepare Serbia to be objectively ready for EU integration by 2012. I am in Brussels now to present our 1000 page national programme of integration, encapsulating seven months of hard work by our administration with the cooperation of our French and Slovenian colleagues. The programme not only measures the gap of where we are now and where we need to be for EU accession, it also develops a complete action programme to get there. Becoming fully compliant is a measure of the professionalism and credibility we want to bring to the EU. Second, the government will seek to improve the living standards of our people.
The Serbian economy has doubled in the last 5 years and we will make sure that it continues to do so in the next 4.5 years in a fair and appropriate way, which respects the European tradition. Third, our policy towards Kosovo will remain unchanged. Serbia will never accept Kosovo independence. We will cooperate with the European Community and the Member States that, unfortunately, took the step of illegally recognising Kosovo. There is no sustainable solution for Kosovo without the participation and acceptance of Serbia. Ahistorical compromise is needed. The Pandora’s box should be closed; precedents should not be created. This is my party’s point of view.

You have just traveled through Russia, and now you are in Brussels. What is the significance of your trip to Brussels at this critical time of formation for your government?

With the new government being confirmed, the objective is to present the Serbian administration’s achievements in the area of European integration. In the last few months, after the initiation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), the debate in Serbia has been dominated by the Kosovo issue and whether the SAA should be signed or not because of what few EU member States have perceived as insufficient cooperation with the international war tribunal. The goal here is to say: we will have pro-European government and it will do everything it can to collaborate with the Hague Tribunal. During my trip, I was grateful to have spoken with Javier Solana, Olli Rehn, and over half of the European Commissioners.
Serbia’s goal was to demonstrate to them, topic by topic, from agriculture to science, to competition policy, to inclusion of the Roma minority that we are on schedule for integration by 2012 (without sugar coating our progress for as much). Yesterday we kicked off the public debate in Serbia. We have met colleagues from the Commission and I will be meeting with Member State ambassadors to receive their feedback on our integration. Their input will help us improve a draft document of our action programme.
Furthermore, we will meet with 30 towns, NGO’s, trade unions and minority representatives to make this a truly shared document. We are organising consultations now so that the government can adopt it as official policy in September. We hope this will reestablish and reconfirm Serbia’s capacity, which is far beyond our current status with regards to the EU.

You place Serbia on course for entry into the EU by 2012; by when do you foresee Serbia becoming an official candidate country?

This might strike you as overly ambitious but Serbia will do everything to get candidate status this year and by answering your question I do not intend to commit the Commission or any other Member States. We are aware that our candidacy implies increasing our collaboration with the Hague Tribunal. Taking this into consideration, I think our national programme and cooperation efforts will qualify us objectively for status by the end of the year.

What do you see as the strengths and challenges that Serbia faces in the integration process?

 Serbia’s foremost strength is its senior public administration capacity. We have a few thousand highly competent, non-corrupt, senior public officials. These are not necessarily political officials but rather public administrative officials that know how to do their job. This is a core advantage. A second strength is our capacity to attract investment. Serbia is an industrial country with a significant industrial base even though the service sector has been continuously increasing. Our industrial tradition constitutes a magnet for foreign investment. For instance, in spite of the latest political tension with Kosovo, Fiat decided to invest 700 million Euro. The city of Indija was also identified as one of the top 25 most attractive investment destinations by the Financial Times in Europe. Our goal is to attract no less than three to four billion Euro a year of Foreign Direct Investement (FDI). We are not even speaking of core elements of infrastructure here, such as potential for telecom, road construction and energy, where so much more can be done. The challenges we face are more political in nature. We must find a way of resolving the Kosovo issue and round up the collaboration with the Hague Tribunal.

Regarding the approximation of national legislation and institutional infrastructure, what has been implemented so far, on a practical level?

On a practical level, we have been working on this since 2001. Even without any formal obligations, our administration has been adapting to the EU standards. This year, our Institute for Standardisation plans to adapt and adopt 5000 new standards, only 13 of which are Serbian, while the rest are EU or global. The wood industry, for example, is applying enormous pressure on government to adopt EU standards without which they would be unable to export their products anymore. We have been implementing new institutions, regulatory agencies and passing laws in sync with the EU. For the past three years, all legislation to be approved by the parliament has been checked to be EU compliant. Moreover, a compulsory point of order of business in every governmental session has been for me to present where we are with EU integration.

Serbia has observed EU enlargement from 15 to 27 Member States. What did Serbia learn from this process? How can Serbia be better prepared for EU integration?

Help yourself for the EU to help you. The EU integration process is not only a wonderful project, unique in world history for providing peace and prosperity; it is also a tool for selfimprovement. In this respect, it is a tool for our country to become more competitive and fair. We believe this without undue idealism or romanticism.

Serbia is in a particular geographical position surrounded by three Member States and one candidate country. Geopolitically, you serve as a bridge for the region. Do you think Serbia’s EU candidacy will serve development in the region?

We are surrounded by Europe and, therefore, we will need to surrender (laughs)! Because we border with so many states and are central, some cocky Serbs say we are the region’s leaders. Having Corridor 10 and the Danube has led many private business developers to say that Belgrade is the Dubai of the Balkans, especially because it is the logistical base of the region. There is some truth to that. Under our visa liberalisation policy, our border crossing management, identification and travel documents, investments in our security systems and in border crossings have all improved the overall regional situation.

On the issue of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, how do you expect the new government to face the challenge?

 We will do everything we can to round up this collaboration. Indeed, once this is done we have to deal with the longstanding reconciliation in the Balkans because not enough has been done at the grass roots level. Elites do collaborate but we need more people-to-people contact. In some cases, too much stereotyping is going on, on both sides, and that is where Europe can help.

From a European perspective, how successful and efficient do you regard the public information process - do you consider that the media and opinion and policy forming mechanisms convey an accurate image of Serbia around Europe?

The long shadow of Milosevic still hangs over us. Indeed, images change. You have seen the face of Serbia winning Roland Garros by Anna Ivanovic and being host to the Eurovision song contest. This is Serbia too and everyone has a different experience of Serbia. Changing Europe’s perception of Serbia will require us being more open and having more people visit the country. The new visa regime will foster more people to people contact and in so doing will contribute to changing stereotypes. That said, Serbia’s image still largely depends on the Kosovo issue. The core is to have a common understanding on the Kosovo issue. That will solve everything else. Hence the necessity of rounding up the Hague issue, which, I am sure, can be dealt with quite quickly. Things will get better.