European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said that Serbia has made considerable progress on its path to obtaining EU candidate status, but the partners in Serbia know what tasks they are supposed to complete and are also aware that they need to boost the completion pace.

In an interview for Television B92 ahead of his joint visit to Belgrade on May 19 with European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso, Fuele said that the main goal of the visit would be to encourage the Serbian government to tackle the remaining tasks on whose completion the EC insisted in the latest report on Serbia's progress on its EU path.

This is still a period during which we support Serbia because it managed to overcome exceptionally big challenges and did so much over the past year and a half, the commissioner said and added that it is now the time for the process to be rounded off.

Asked to comment on the importance which the assessment of Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Serge Brammertz bears for the EC positive decision regarding Serbia's candidate status application, Fuele said that Brammertz' assessment bears special significance for the issue.

When it comes to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Fuele said that the EC and members agree that the talks constitute an important element in the regional cooperation.

We share the view that the talks cannot be conducted merely so that there would be talks, Fuele said and added that certain results need to be achieved, and not merely to please some countries or someone in the EC, but in order to do something that would have tangible results on the everyday life of people living in Kosovo.

When it comes to the non-visa regime with the EU and its potential suspension for Serbia, Fuele said that he is aware of the importance of this issue and does not wish to speculate.

The commissioner said that he would not like to speculate as to what might happen, and added that what is important now is for all competent bodies in Serbia to take all necessary steps and eliminate the need for EU members to even consider resorting to certain restrictive measures.