At the sitting held on 13 December, the members of the European Integrations Committee considered and endorsed The Bill on the Confirmation of the Framework Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Commission of the European Communities on the Rules for Co-operation Concerning EC-Financial Assistance to the Republic of Serbia in the Framework of the Implementation of the Assistance Under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The sitting was chaired by Milos Jevtic.

On the occasion, State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Slobodan Ilic pointed out that the Agreement, signed on 29 November, created conditions for further rapid development of financial and economic cooperation between the Government of Serbia, the European Union and its members. For the 2007-2013 period, the European Union adopted a new financial instrument of extending assistance to countries that are not members of the European Union, the goal of which is to have candidate and potential candidate countries for EU membership use unified financial rules, aligned with the rules in force in member countries. That would expedite their preparations for EU membership and facilitate their access to the use and administering of EU funds. It is an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance to primarily finance support programmes under the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU concerning transitional processes and development of institutions in the upcoming period in Serbia. Secondly, this instrument will support programmes of regional and cross-border cooperation.

The State Secretary said that the total financial value of IPA in a six-year period for candidate and potential candidate countries amounts to 11,468 billion euros making it very important for Serbia to achieve the status of an EU membership candidate country as soon as possible. This also requires a swift development of a legal and administrative framework for the use of EU assistance, as well as having Serbia offer a sufficient number of quality programmes to be financed out of the funds.

The Committee Chairman, Milos Jevtic, emphasised that, compared to the other Western Balkan countries, Serbia will receive the largest amount of funds, by the Agreement.

The Committee also accepted the reports from the meeting of the First Working Table of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and the national coordinators for parliamentary support, held in Sofia and Tirana as part of the adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding and Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe.