Toespraak van Olli Rehn bij totstandkoming van Stabilisatie- en Associatie-Overeenkomst met Servië (en)

SPEECH/07/696

Mr Olli Rehn

EU Commissioner for Enlargement

Initialling the SAA with Serbia

Initialling Ceremony in Berlaymont

7 November 2007, Brussels

Mr President, Deputy Prime Minister, Dear Friends,

We have had a very important ceremony today by initialling the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Serbia which is the first stepping stone towards the path of the European integration and the gateway towards candidate status in the European Union.

I am very glad that this event took place here in Berlaymont and especially in the room devoted to Jean Monnet who so often underlined the importance of the solidarity of the facts on the ground so that the European integration proceeds through voluntary economic and political integration as an essential step towards uniting people.

And this agreement this is precisely about creating concrete benefits for Serbian people and creating pre-conditions for uniting not only states but also people in the very true European spirit.

Serbia has worked very hard on achieving this result and I must say that throughout the negotiations, the Commission and my people have been very impressed by Serbia's negotiating capacity, which is of course a good omen for implementation of the agreement. And thus then for the following steps because we need a convincing track record of the implementation of the SAA before we can consider a candidate status for Serbia, which I know is the objective of the President and of Government.

This Agreement will bring concrete benefits to the citizens of Serbia. It will establish a free trade area and thus facilitate better conditions for investment and for job creation for the citizens of the country.

Today we have a moment to celebrate, because Serbia deserves to take this new step on its European path. It deserves it on the technical merits but also on the merits of making progress in fulfilling the political conditions. There has been intensified cooperation with the ICTY, which allowed us to initial the SAA today. At the same time it's not the end of the road. As I have underlines yesterday in the Press Conference Full cooperation with ICTY remains the necessary condition for the signature of the SAA. But to conclude it is clear for everybody it is clear for Serbian people, I trust that the country now has a very concrete and not too distant European perspective, with the ultimate goal of EU membership as an alternative to the nationalist past which is being left behind and [that] is on trial in The Hague.

This is very important day for Serbia's European future and the European Commission and the EU are committed to this common goal.