SERBIAN GOVERNOR SAYS SERBIA TO JOIN EU ON ITS OWN

BELGRADE, April 29 (Hina) - The Serbian National Bank (NBS) Governor, Mladjan Dinkic, has said that time will soon show that Serbia must request a separate process of association and stabilisation with the European Union because Serbia and Montenegro will not be able to integrate their customs systems soon. #L# "In my opinion, the Belgrade agreement and the Constitutional Charter have legalised two separate markets, but this will also be the reason for the future peaceful disintegration of the union of Serbia and Montenegro," Djinkic said in an interview for the latest issue of the Ekonomija magazine. He said it was unrealistic to expect that the two republics, which are not of the same size, would show interest in the same level of customs protection of the domestic industry. He stressed that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU would not be signed until Serbia and Montenegro agreed on customs rates and established joint customs and other bodies, "regardless of what EU High Representative Javier Solana promises our politicians". "Because of this mission impossible, Serbia has been making no progress for over a year. We will have to ask ourselves very soon if we want to enter Europe with Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, or if we will have to wait for Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, which would be a national catastrophe," Dinkic said and assessed that the latter three countries would not join the EU before 2020. (hina) it