DACIC: EU accession talks date by end-2012 or in H1 2013

(Ivica Dacic)

Serbia’s goal is to get a date for the beginning of the EU accession talks by the end of 2012 because it is its national interest, PM Ivica Dacic said Tuesday.

- (EP rapporteur for Serbia Jelko) Kacin’s statement that Serbia will not get a date for the beginning of the EU negotiations by the end of the year is his position based on speculation whether Serbia will have enough time to do the job it is expected to do - Dacic said at a press conference in the Serbian government.

He added that internal reforms were the primary goal since the country wanted to harmonize its legislation with the EU’s.

Commenting on Kacin’s statement on privatizations in Serbia, the PM said that he had been warning about the issue for a long time, stressing that one third of privatizations had been annulled.

He said that the new government had decided to inspect all suspicious privatizations “regardless of whether the EU is interested in the issue or not”.

The Serbian prime minister had a meeting with Kacin on Tuesday and said that he did not expect any new conditions for Serbia on its EU pathway.