Director of the EU Integration Office Milica Delevic stated today that over the last ten years, Serbia’s overall trade volume with CEFTA countries tripled and its trade surplus increased nine times.

Speaking at a conference on the benefits of regional and cross-border cooperation for Serbia within the CEFTA agreement, Delevic recalled that countries in the region are included in this agreement.

CEFTA countries are Serbia’s second key trade partner with a 33% share in the total export and 8% of the total import, Delevic said.

At the end of 2006 an agreement on the formation of a new central European free trade zone was signed and five years later we can say that most of the goals we had set have been accomplished, Delevic observed.

Economic integration which secures participation in this agreement is a way to show the practical effects of EU integration in the everyday life, Delevic stressed, adding that this best illustrates the advantages of EU membership.

Countries in the region will leave CEFTA as they join the EU, as was the case with 12 new members who accessed the Union in 2004 and 2007, Delevic stated.

The free trade zone which CEFTA enables is not a final goal, but only a step towards EU membership, she concluded.