Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic stated on Friday that the Finance Ministry has sent a dispatch to the EU Delegation in Belgrade, asking Brussels to assume an official stand regarding the amendments to the Excise Duty Law.

“If the EU believes that there are some elements that constitute a violation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), the stand of the Serbian government is that such elements should be changed,” Djelic told Tanjug.

Djelic noted that if this proves to be the case, he himself as the deputy prime minister for European integration will request that an agreement on changes should be reached prior to the session of the committee for the SAA implementation, which will be held in Brussels from March 22 to 24.

“In the year when Serbia expects to obtain (EU) candidate status and the exact date to be established for the initiation of the talks on the country's EU accession, the last thing we need is for the EU to say that Serbia's actions have endangered or in any way violated the existing SAA,” Djelic noted.

Quoting certain well-informed government sources, the Belgrade-based daily Danas reported on Friday that the EU could soon voice its protest over Serbia's adoption of dual fuel excise duty which applies higher excise tax on imported petroleum products, which the EU could use as an argument to say that this move discriminates against European companies.