SERBIA SUCCEEDED IN BOARDING THE EU TRAIN

6. July 2011.

Vranje – H.E. Christer Asp, the Swedish Ambassador to Serbia, said yesterday in Vranje that Serbia had boarded the EU train and that he expected that a positive decision on accepting Serbia’s candidacy for EU membership would be reached this December.

Ambassador Asp also said that Serbia had met most of the criteria during the first step towards the EU, as well as that the said criteria should be fully met.

According to Ambassador Asp, the most important criteria for making the decision on the EU candidacy status include reform of the judiciary, reforms relating to the election laws and the law on restitution.

"Serbia is on the right path to the EU. Although the train to the EU has already set off, it will have to stop at a few stations. However, it is already moving, and Sweden provides strong support to Serbia in this process”, Ambassador Asp said.

Ambassador Asp also stated that the number of Serbia’s asylum-seekers in Sweden had decreased, adding that Sweden had changed the laws on asylum-seekers. “Now they receive so little money that they can’t even afford a bus ticket”, Ambassador Asp said.

The Swedish Ambassador talked in Vranje with Vranje’s leadership. He also paid a visit to RTV Vranje and “Vranjske” weekly, and along with Miroljub Stojcic, Vranje’s mayor, opened the exhibition of caricatures under the title of “Facing the Climate”, the authors of which are from Sweden and the Balkans. The exhibition will be held on the premises of the National Museum in Vranje and it will be on until July 12. The exhibition consists of exhibits in which the troublesome aspects of a sustainable development are portrayed in a funny manner.