Berlusconi arrives on Friday - Second summit of Serbian and Italian governments on July 15 in Belgrade

(Silvio Berlusconi)

After many announcements and delays, a summit of the governments of Serbia and Italy should finally be held in Belgrade next week. As Novosti daily learns, the Italian government delegation, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, arrives on July 15.

Berlusconi, who will be on his first official visit to Serbia, will be accompanied by five ministers and number of businessmen. This will be a return summit of the two countries on the highest level since the first meeting was held in November 2009 in Rome. At that "initial" summit, a declaration on strategic partnership and another 13 agreements in various fields, from economy to culture, were signed. The summit in Belgrade will also be an occasion to conclude certain important agreements in the fields of economy, agriculture and police cooperation, as well as for Berlusconi's meetings with President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic.

The main theme of the summit will be Italy's further support to our integrations and, especially, our effort to achieve the set goal to acquire the status of a candidate and set a date for the commencement of negotiations with the EU by the year's end.

Berlusconi will be accompanied by the following five ministers: Roberto Maroni (police), Ignatio la Russa (defense), Paolo Romani (economic development), Altero Mateoli (infrastructure and transport) and Francesco Saverio Romano (agriculture).

The ministers of police will sign as much as four agreements, one of which will stipulate mutual acknowledgement of driving licenses, which is something these two countries have been working on for nearly a decade. Also, prime ministers will sign a joint statement on cooperation in the fields of economy and agriculture.

Nearly USD 1 billion invested

During the first months of this year, the exchange of goods with Italy amounted to USD 1.2 billion, with good prospects to hit the record high of USD 3 billion by the end of 2011. There are four Italian banks and over 200 companies operating in Serbia, the largest of which are Fiat, Benetton, Pompea... Italy ranks sixth in the amount of investments in our country, and companies from that country have invested nearly USD 1 billion in Serbia over the last nine years.