CADEZ: Benefit from single regional market also depends on Brussels' readiness to facilitate cooperation between the region and the EU

The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS), Marko Cadez, has said that the benefit from the single regional market which the citizens and the companies of the region should get also depends on the readiness of Brussels to facilitate the cooperation between the region and the EU.

There also has to be a readiness of the EU to facilitate this cooperation, Cadez said and reminded of the fact that, before the agreement, trucks would be delayed on the borders within the region for a whole day and that there were no delays now, whereas, on the EU borders, they still waited for up to 10 hours.

Cadez said this two nights ago on the Oko TV show on RTS, where his co-guest was the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Sem Fabrizi, who said that the agreements signed the day before within Mini Schengen were a great political obligation when it comes to reforms and that the EU would provide maximum support in their execution, which must be completed within three to four years.

The desired progress, Cadez believes, will not happen if there's no readiness to work on bringing this market closer to the EU.

When asked when the crossing of the borders of these six countries will require no paperwork and delays at the borders, so that people can find jobs in any country of the region, and what the next step is, the president of the CCIS says that there's a process of creating an internal market and that there's an action plan.

– We can't influence it. If the EU is not ready to let the region be a part of the single market before we become a member, then we haven't achieved much – Cadez said.

He reminded that Serbia now had triple the volume of goods compared to several years before and that there were 18,000 companies from the EU operating in the region and added that it was in everyone's interest for the flow of goods to accelerate.

He added that it was important for the readiness of the leaders to make a joint market to be apparent and for the traffic within that area to be unobstructed.

Cadez expects all certificates in the region to be harmonized soon and says that most of it is already complete.

– The EU is not just a single market, it is also something that can help us carry out the reforms in the region more quickly – said the president of the CCIS and estimated that it would be good if Brussels helped us have access to the EU single market.

– Let us work, let us have access to your market, let us remove the borders between the region and the EU – Cadez said and added that a visa liberalization with Kosovo would also be required, because, as he says, the economy cannot develop if people need visas.

When asked whether at least a half of what is planned will be realized within the next year, Cadez said that he was sure that, as for the internal market and the agreement of the leaders of the six members, a lot could be done, but that the success still depended on the EU.

Privredna komora Srbije

Delegacija Evropske unije u Republici Srbiji Beograd

CCIS

Marko Čadež

Sem Fabrizi

Brussels

cooperation of the region and the EU

Mini Schengen

flow of goods

certificates

visa liberalization