Meeting with the President of Serbia Boris Tadic: Prime Minister’s statement

Belgrade, 4 January 2010

Boris Tadic:    I am very happy because of having the opportunity once again to meet George Papandreou in Belgrade, one of the greatest politicians that I met in my political life and the Prime Minister of Greece.

We have been talking about our relations, bilateral relations, the economic situation in our countries – both of us are affected because of the financial crisis deeply.

We are suffering because of that, but we are looking for some solutions, and I am sure that we are going to find some solutions for our common problems.

At the same time, we have been talking about some problems that are affecting our region, for example the Kosovo Metohija issue. I want to thank George once again and Greece’s government, because of supporting Serbia in terms of defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty by using only diplomatic instruments.

We have been talking about the European future of Serbia, and George Papandreou has been supporting Serbia in that respect from the beginning of his political career. Thank you once again, and we are going to continue our reforms.

We applied for candidate status, and we are hoping that we’ll finish as soon as possible our cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and after that will get candidate status and continue our efforts. And at the end of the day to become a member state of the European Union.

That is why Agenda 2014 is very important and healthy for Serbia, when the whole Western Balkans has to be integrated in the European Union.

That is what we have been talking about in our meeting, and I hope to meet George Papandreou as soon as possible once again and to talk and to think together about our common perspective.

George A. Papandreou:   Allow me to congratulate you, President and dear friend, Boris, on first of all the fact that you made very important strides for the European Union, the issue of the abolishment of the visa and the fact that you have now applied for candidate status to the European Union.

Of course these moves show the progress that you have been able to make, with the courageous efforts, your efforts, the government’s efforts, the efforts of the Serbian people, and we have been very close in supporting all these efforts, and I congratulate you again for all the courage and political will in moving forward.

We will be working closely with you on this agenda: 2014 is a date which we believe can mobilise both the European Union but also the countries of the Western Balkans, to make sure that we make this prospect a reality and go through the necessary changes and reforms, but have the necessary support from the rest of the European Union.

So Greece will be your close ally, as we always have been, in this course to the European Union.