Speaking of the Government’s activities as regards European integration, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Suzana Grubjesic said that the Serbian Government had created a Coordination Body for EU accession, which would be headed by Prime Minister Ivica Dacic. She added that 35 subgroups were currently being formed for the preparation of membership negotiations, which would be followed by preparations for the drafting of a new National Programme for Integration of Serbia into the European Union which should come into force in 2013 and be implemented in the next four years. The programme will be based on the obligations from the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and will include the obligations not yet met by the end of this year.
Grubjesic said that the annual progress reports provided the starting point for the document which would be accompanied by two annexes, one of which is an overview of measures to be implemented, description of priorities and strategic documents, while the other concerns budgetary funds.
The Committee members adopted the Report by a majority of votes, and with some comments and suggestions. The repeated their earlier complaints that the Government did not adopt by-laws necessary for the implementation of the laws on time and suggested that the National Assembly should adopt a binding recommendation according to which by-laws would be proposed simultaneously with the bills.
They also suggested that each bill the Government submits to the National Assembly be accompanied by a statement on its compliance with European legislation.
Elaborating the Information on current affairs regarding Serbian asylum-seekers in EU countries, Deputy Prime Minister Suzana Grubjesic stressed that Serbia’s visa-free regime is not threatened at present. She stated that the Commission monitoring the visa-free regime had employed a series of measures and activities to reduce the number of fake asylum-seeker and that Europe recognizes the Serbian Government’s readiness to cooperate on addressing the issue.
Some of these measures include increased control measures at border crossings, which helped reduce organised arrivals of Serbian citizens into countries where they seek asylum, said the Deputy Prime Minister, announcing that the Ministry of Justice would propose amendments to the Criminal Code demanding that fake asylum seeking be treated as a criminal offense.
Deputy Prime Minister Suzana Grubjesic informed the Committee members about the completion of an Action Plan aimed at meeting the recommendations from the Annual Report on Serbia’s progress and National Programme for the adoption of the EU acquis communautaire, which have been forwarded to the ministries, thought the Government had not voted on them yet.
The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairperson, Milica Delevic.