ITEM 1:

Interview with Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission

00:15: On the changes that have taken place in the Balkans in the last years, and the new historic period starting now

01:38: Balkan states and EU financial perspectives

02:18: Last EU enlargement and Balkan states: the success of this enlargement opens the doors to the next…

03:10: EU Membership for Balkan states after 2010? No dates, but urgency for clear will to change structure of the states

04:05: Balkans in DG Enlargement of the European Commission: Prodi says it happens now thanks to the good work of “his” Commission.

04:31: On Bosnia and Herzegovina

05:08: On Bosnia and Herzegovina

05:37: On Serbia and Montenegro

07:05: New Eu budget and Balkan states

07:37: EU instruments to assist Balkan countries with EU integration

ITEM 2:

Interview with Boris Tadic, President of Serbia

Interview with Boris Tadic, President of Serbia

Q: Mr. President, you have been elected in June on a strong pro-European agenda. How do you interpret the choice the Serbs made by choosing you. Why did they actually vote for you?

A: After this election and the first round of local elections in Serbia, I think that the situation is clear. We have a majority that is for the European way of Serbia in the future and there is no question about that. We have only one problem and that is the participation in the election and that is from time to time a technical problem. But if we have a more active position during the campaign, it's not so tough to make people vote for their candidates of the European way of Serbia and from my point of view, right now we have a totally new situation in Serbia comparing to Milosevic's period.

Q: You are not worried by the fact that still a number of Serbs is voting for the Radical Party, which is close to the former Milosevic's regime.

A: The fact is that we have two third of our population who are for pro-European parties in Serbia and one third which is for more conservative, radical and nationalistic parties. I don't have any dilemma about that, but in the future I think we'll have a strengthening of pro-European parties and this kind of policy here.

Q: The Union of Serbia and Montenegro apparently does not work very well. Do you think that this kind of situation is hampering the process of European integration of both member states?

A: From time to time we have a problem in terms of the functioning of the Union and this depends on the political situation in both Republics. Serbia's position is to take a neutral position in terms of the internal policy of Montenegro. I have a position, as a President of Serbia, to remain outside of these kinds of processes in Montenegro. In Montenegro, we have a very tough discussion between parties and the authorities about the Montenegrin way in the future and we have to be very careful and neutral about that. At the same time, the State Union has a huge chance if we have the same goals and the same intentions. I think that right now we have a better situation adopting the double-track system in terms of the harmonization of our economical conditions in our two republics. That would be a much more better situation today than before in terms of our application to the European Union and I hope that the European Union and the European Commission will take a very positive attitude in terms of harmonization, which was the main problem in the past and that would be very important for the feasibility study, which has to be positive after this decision on adopting the double-track system. After that we will have more possibilities in terms of our applying steps in the future.

Q: Does Serbia-Montenegro hope to become an official candidate for EU membership in the near future, especially after seeing the example of Croatia? Croatia should start negotiations in January 2005.

A: Before that we must achieve something very important. After a positive reaction of the European Commission in terms of the Feasibility Study, I expect that we will have a negotiation about association and stabilization with the European representatives as soon as possible. I'm expecting that in 2006 we can become a formal candidate for full membership. This is my estimate and I hope we can do everything that we have to do and I will do everything that I can to push our government to implement reforms in the economy, the Ministry of Justice is also very important as well as other area that are important for us applying to the European Union.

Q: Serbia has a very bad reputation with the legacy of Milosevic's years and the wars of the nineties. What is Serbia doing to improve that image, especially in EU countries?

A: This kind of general perception, which is in fact negative is a huge problem for politicians who are in the position to create new policies in Serbia. I know that we have to do everything in terms of stabilizing the position of Serbia in the world, especially in the international community and some institutions. In that sense, we are doing in terms of reforms in our country what is necessary, but we have a huge obstacle and that is cooperation with the ICTY, the Hague tribunal. I know that very well and I know what we have to do and this is full cooperation with the ICTY. After that and sending the indictees to the Hague tribunal, that would be a huge step towards European integration and a better position of Serbia in the international community. This is very simple, but the problems exists because we have some difficulties with cooperation with the Hague, which are objective difficulties.

Q: Could you maybe explain why it is so difficult for Serbia to make that step?

A: The main issue is the case of Ratko Mladic, who is a former general of the Bosnian Serbs. His role in the war was I mean very bad and from my point of view he has to be in the Hague tribunal. The problem is that the general perception in the international community is that he is in Serbia right now. A few months ago I was the Defense Minister and I was trying to find whether he was at some place that is under the control of the armed forces of the Defense Ministry. This was an unsuccessful investigation and I have to say that right now we don't know where he is. It is very difficult to find somebody who has a huge experience and I know that international troops have the same problem everywhere in the world, in Bosnia, in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries. I hope that we understand each other, but at the same time we have to find him. If he is not in Serbia this is impossible. How to show evidence that he is not in Serbia right now, this is totally impossible. This is why we are organizing a lot of investigation and actions to find him and I want to convince international authorities that if he is in Serbia we will arrest him and send him to the Hague, no doubt about that. But right now, we have a problem finding him.

Q: The recent troubles in the Serbian province of Vojvodina did not help to improve the Serbian image in Europe. How would you explain what has actually happened there?

A: A few incidents happened, I was trying to organize as a President an investigation about that, we had a few meetings with judges, with authorities in Vojvodina and a few very important people from local communities and they tried to explain to me what happened. From time to time, those were only incidents between two people and two parts of local communities, this was very personal fighting. From time to time I think that we had problems between nations. As the President of Serbia, I care about the status of Serbia in the world, but not only about that. I have to care about political stability. That means that we have to care about the position of minorities. This is because of us, not because of the international community. I have the intention to bring here European values. That was our common history. In Vojvodina, we had a very stable society in the past. Unfortunately, we had ten years of war in the last decade of the 20th century. I think this is a reaction of this terrible decade, this is a consequence of this terrible decade. I will do everything that I can as the President of Serbia to stabilize the situation in Vojvodina and in the next few days I will visit this few local municipalities where I have to organize meetings with authorities, with the police for example and local Hungarian authorities. I will do that. I am sure that we can stabilize the situation and Vojvodina cannot be a problem for Serbia and stability in Serbia and at the same time for our relations with Hungary. This is very important. This kind of relations with Hungary are in my point of view very important in terms of our European intentions.

Q: Kosovo is still part of Serbia, but under UN protectorate. As we know, the majority of Kosovars want independence. What is your view on the future of Kosovo?

A: Regarding the Resolution 1244 Kosovo is part of Serbia. Our general approach is to respect all international resolutions and agreements including Dayton, the Military-Technical Agreement in Kumanovo and the Resolution 1244 adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations. We care about political stability and that means respecting all international resolutions and rules in the region. I think that the final solution of Kosovo has to include all legitimate national interests thinking about regional stability, this is the only way. We have a legitimate national interest in Kosovo, which has been part of our country for many decades. At the same time, as a nation we have a huge problem in Kosovo. Right now, down there we have more than 130,000 Serbs. Unfortunately, two thirds of our population from Kosovo is right now in Serbia and they are internally displaced persons. The story about their destiny is very sad and terrible and we have to do everything to return them back to Kosovo to their homes. We had a huge problem in March and that was ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs, organized and orchestrated by some groups of Kosovo Albanians. That was totally unacceptable for European and our own values and I think that we must achieve political stability in Kosovo. In that sense I have a very close cooperation with Mr. Jessen-Petersen, who is the representative of the United Nations in Kosovo and the commander of KFOR. But we are not satisfied with our situation in Kosovo and we have to do a lot in terms of ensuring the security of Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo. You have asked me about the final status. I think that next year we will have negotiations about that. For Serbia it is very important to stabilize the situation in Kosovo and to care about our people there. I think that Kosovo must have more than autonomy and less than an independent state. That would be a contribution to political stability in the region and from my point of view acceptable for all nations in Kosovo.

OK, now we will repeat the first question

Q: You have been elected in June on a very pro-European agenda. How do you interpret the choice Serbs made by choosing you, why did they vote for you?

A: I think that we don't have more solutions than the pro-European solution right now. The pro-European agenda is something that is acceptable for our people. After October the 5th, when we did a huge victory against the former regime, Milosevic's former socialist regime and the Radicals' regime, I think that in the past four years we have seen huge improvement in terms of bringing European values to our country and adopting very modern pro-European way for our country and our people. Right now I think that we have a huge majority of our people which are for these values, these European ways and this policy. I was representing those policies in my campaign for President. That was my decision and the fact that I won on the presidential elections is our contribution to political stability in the region, not only to our internal political stability. I think that the local elections that were organized after the presidential elections are evidence that we have a pro-European trend in Serbia. I really think that in the future this kind of policies will win in our country and on the next elections we will have a new government that will be more pro-European than the former ones and the present government.

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