The visiting Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said on Monday that Greece supports Serbia's integration into the European Union, urging a speedy liberalization of visa regimes for Serbians, the official Tanjug news agency reported.
Greece is making efforts for the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the EU to be implemented soon, Bakoyannis said after meeting with her Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic.
The FM who currently presides over the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said that Greece is urging a speedy liberalization of the visa regime for Serbia's citizens, underscoring that Belgrade had taken significant steps in democratization of the society in the recent years.
Serbia signed the pre-entry SAA with the bloc last year. But the implementation of the agreement has been blocked by a lack of Serbia's full cooperation with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which means the arrest and extradition of war crimes suspects former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.
In response to Jeremic's statement that Serbia will not allow Kosovo to join the OSCE, Bakoyannis said that the OSCE is an organization that works on the principle of consensus of all its 56 member states.
"The OSCE deals in concrete issues and does not discuss those that belong to other spheres," she said.
In an interview with Tanjug before her visit, Bakoyannis said that her country's stance on Kosovo remains unchanged.
Most EU countries and the United States have recognized Kosovo which unilaterally declared independence in Feb. 2008. Greece is one of five EU countries that have refused to recognize Kosovo.