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EU Partially Lifts Sanctions Against Yugoslavia
The European Union on Monday decided to partially lift its sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The EU foreign ministers agreed unanimously to lift the flight ban and the oil embargo imposed against the Balkan nation since 1998.
Both decisions of ban lifting will be executed once officially published by the union journal.
Two other EU sanctions still remain in place. They are the visa ban and a freeze of Yugoslav government overseas assets in EU member states.
In a written statement released after the EU foreign ministers council, the foreign ministers said that the 15-nation bloc decided to lift the two bans so as to materialize its promise given just prior to the Yugoslav presidential elections last month.
The European Union promised to lift its sanctions against Yugoslavia should former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic be replaced by someone from his opposition.
The flight ban was temporarily suspended earlier this year while the EU has been delivering oil to towns dominated by Yugoslav oppositions.
The EU foreign ministers also said that the union was to start a reconstruction program for the Balkan country that underwent 78 days of NATO bombing last year.
They proposed that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Kostunica participate in the stabilization program that was launched last year at the EU summit at Cologne, Germany.
The foreign ministers proposed to the European Commission, the executive body of the 15-nation bloc, to offer Yugoslavia the special trade status.
The European Union has granted full access of goods for 48 world's poorest countries to the EU markets. Duty-free access will be given to all goods except for arms to these countries.
The EU calls this trade status as the asymetrical commercial preference.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine is going to Belgrade on Tuesday to inform Kostunica about the EU decisions and will also invite the new Yugoslav president to the EU informal summit slated for later this week in the French seaside resort of Biarritz.
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