Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic said that Serbia will answer to the questionnaire of the European Commission by the first quarter of next year.

Djelic, speaking last night at Radio Television Serbia, said that Serbia expects 2,500 questions, and that based on the experiences of our neighbours, Serbia did a "dress rehearsal" from December last year to May this year and prepared a large part of the answers to the questions that will be surely included in our questionnaire.

We will see what the new questions are, and we will refresh the data, said Djelic and added that he expects the most delicate questions in the questionnaire to be related to the judiciary.

We have arrested the most severe criminals, some of them have already been convicted, their property is bein seized, and in this sense, our country has received very positive reviews. Now it remains to check whether there have been some individual mistakes in the selection of judges and prosecutors, said Djelic.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the questionnaire will on 24 November be brought by European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule.

Then the Serbian government’s action plan for the EU next year, which was prepared based on the report of the European Commission, will be handed over to Fule, he stated.

By the end of the year we will work out all the measures, and in the first half of next year we will do a great deal of the work so that the European Commission could in September or October prepare an opinion for the candidate status of Serbia, said Djelic.

Serbia plans to comply with European legislation by the end of 2012, he announced.

Djelic reiterated that the issue of Serbia's entry into the EU depends on the economic and social situation in Europe, but also on the capacity of Serbia to resolve the Kosovo-Metohija issue.

The deadlines depend on the pace of implementation of our reforms and we will have to have a solution to Kosovo-Metohija before we join the EU, but we will not recognise Kosovo's independence, said Djelic.