Serbia told to take EU accession in steps

10/12/2009

Serbia is consulting its European partners as to whether it should go ahead and submit its official application for EU membership. According to some EU officials, the time for this has not come yet.

(Irish Independent, Blic, B92 - 10/12/09; Telegraph, European Voice, NRC International, Beta, B92 - 09/12/09)

"In June we will re-evaluate if we can to ratify the agreement," Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said. [Getty Images]

Encouraged by several recent breakthroughs in its relations with the EU, Serbia is now considering the best timing for submitting its official application for membership in the 27-nation bloc. But some senior EU officials indicated on Wednesday (December 9th) that Belgrade should hold off on that move for the time being.

"We should take one step at a time," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said during a conference on the Western Balkans in Brussels, two days after the EU decided to unblock the Interim Trade Agreement signed with Serbia in April 2008. Monday's approval followed UN war crimes chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz's positive assessment of Belgrade's co-operation with The Hague tribunal.

Enforcement of the trade pact, which is part of Serbia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, came on the heels of another major breakthrough in the country's relations with the bloc. On November 30th, the EU interior ministers voted to allow Serbian citizens, along with those of Macedonia and Montenegro, to travel to most of Europe without visas, as of December 19th.

Bildt, whose country will hand over the rotating six-month EU presidency to Spain on January 1st, said on Wednesday that the Union would now consider the "subsequent steps" following the enactment of the trade agreement.

The arrest of former Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic remains a condition for the ratification of the SAA between Serbia and the EU, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told the Dutch parliament Wednesday. The Netherlands agreed to compromise with the removal of EU visas for Serbs and start the implementation of the interim trade agreement, but will stick to its original stance that the SAA will not come into force unless Mladic is in The Hague, Verhagen stressed.

Speaking at the Brussels conference, both Bildt and outgoing EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn stressed that there should not be a break in the expansion of the Union, as Croatia and Iceland are expected to join soon.

The Western Balkan countries' "journey to the EU is not going to be easy, but the goal is in sight", Belgrade-based daily Blic quoted Rehn as saying Wednesday.

He said it is critical for Serbia to make sure now that the trade deal, which it is already implementing "smoothly and consistently," will produce results. That will be of "key importance when the European Commission assesses its readiness to become a membership candidate and start membership talks," Belgrade-based Beta news agency quoted Rehn as saying.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said on Wednesday that Belgrade will decide when to file its official EU membership application following consultations with its European partners.

"The act itself of applying for candidacy is a political act which demonstrates that the debates on the topic are finished," he told Belgrade-based B92. "We finished the domestic debate on what direction we are headed -- we are heading towards EU integration. The international debate will be finished when Serbia submits its candidacy application."

According to a Blic report Thursday (December 10th), Belgrade appears to have already secured the support of two key EU players for such a step. Citing well-informed diplomatic sources in Berlin, the daily said Germany is encouraging Serbia to file its application before Christmas. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has also reportedly told Jeremic recently that his country should not hesitate to make that move.