Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic welcomed today the positive opinion of the European Commission (EC) on Serbia's candidacy for EU membership, which recommends giving the candidate status to Serbia and allows for the negotiations to start within a period that can be shorter than one year, without settin

He declared that the positive report and opinion are the result of a long and dedicated work of Serbia on ending the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and implementing reforms, as well as of its positive contribution to regional security and cooperation.

In these difficult times of crisis in Europe and unrest in northern Kosovo-Metohija, we must underline that this is the best possible outcome for our country, he said, noting that the conditions proposed by the EC regarding dialogue with Pristina are already known and status neutral.

In the near future, Serbia will work on gaining support from all EU member states for the December summit of EU leaders.

This step, no matter how important, is not the last. Our next goal is to start negotiations for joining the EU and on this path there is a lot of work and many challenges ahead of us, Djelic concluded.