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Sat, Nov 21 2009
Serbian signals
FIRM STANCE: The Netherlands foreign minister Maxime Verhagen, citing Hague tribunal prosecutor Serge Brammertz, says that Serbia still is not fully co-operating with the tribunal. This means that the EU trade and aid deal with Serbia cannot be unblocked, according to Verhagen, who will visit Belgrade in July.
Photo: Nato.int
In late June, Serbian daily Blic quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the European Union was encouraging the country to apply before the end of this year for membership of the bloc.
But Serbia, well accustomed to living in a world of deep divisions, especially over the Kosovo question, finds itself the subject of strongly opposing camps on its EU membership prospects.
It is not Kosovo that is the issue that will determine whether it joins the EU, Belgrade has been assured time and again, even though there are some dissenting voices on this. The question that will really make the difference is whether Serbia may be deemed officially to be co-operating sufficiently with The Hague tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
In Luxembourg on June 16, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said that progress was being made but there was still not full co-operation.
This had the immediate impact of reinforcing the stance taken by The Netherlands and Belgium that until there is full co-operation with the tribunal, the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), a trade-and-aid deal seen as a precursor to the accession process, cannot be unblocked.
Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen is scheduled to visit Belgrade on July 21, but in the final few weeks before the visit, there seems scant indication that it could see a change in the Dutch position.
Verhagen confirmed that the agenda of his visit to Bulgaria included economic co-operation. However, The Netherlands insisted that as long as Serbia was not fully co-operating with the tribunal, the SAA could not come into effect.
Serbia, naturally, has a different view. Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Delic said that Brammertz had said at the Luxembourg meeting that implementing the SAA would in fact help the Hague co-operation process.
Delic said that Belgrade wanted to persuade Verhagen that Serbia was doing everything it could to finalise co-operation with the tribunal, and not only that, to brief him on other aspects of the country’s efforts towards EU readiness, in the hope of getting The Netherlands to change its stance before the EU ministerial meeting scheduled for July 27.
Serbia has no shortage of backers for its EU hopes. Those who have recently reiterated their support include Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, while in Belgrade, news agency Tanjug reported Russian ambassador Aleksandr Konuzin as saying that Moscow had no objection to Serbia – a strong ally, as evidenced by Russia’s firm backing for Serbia on the Kosovo issue – joining the EU.
Recent polls show that most Serbians favour the country joining the EU. On June 19, the head of Serbia’s EU integration office, Milica Delevic, said that the figure was 61 per cent in favour, while on June 21, Tanjug reported the office as saying that support was 79 per cent, up from 61 per cent in December 2008.
Perhaps one of the most influential backers of Serbia making progress towards EU membership is European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who said on June 22 that Brussels was seeking a way to get the SAA unfrozen.
Taking a position similar to the one that Delic said Brammertz had, Rehn said: "I think that the unfreezing of the interim agreement will have a positive, not negative, impact on Serbia’s co-operation with The Hague.
The second half of the year will see Sweden take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, meaning that it will fall to it to broker any possible deal, although with the current stance of The Netherlands and Belgium, the possibility of a compromise seems unlikely.
Should Serbia manage to get its EU membership application filed by the end of 2009, and its accession process goes smoothly, current belief is that membership could take up to eight years. Media reports in late June suggested that the thinking was that a number of countries would be accepted into the bloc in one go, the others including Macedonia, Montenegro and possibly Albania.
In the meantime, Belgrade is continuing efforts to send signals about its work with the tribunal.
On June 29, foreign minister Vuk Jeremic told the BBC that 46 out of 48 of those indicted in The Hague had been apprehended. Serbia was working with intelligence services and governments to capture and hand over the remaining two. Jeremic said that Serbia was doing a good job in reforms towards the EU, but repeated what has become Belgrade’s current customary message, that the stalling of the SAA was blocking the process.
But Serbia, well accustomed to living in a world of deep divisions, especially over the Kosovo question, finds itself the subject of strongly opposing camps on its EU membership prospects.
It is not Kosovo that is the issue that will determine whether it joins the EU, Belgrade has been assured time and again, even though there are some dissenting voices on this. The question that will really make the difference is whether Serbia may be deemed officially to be co-operating sufficiently with The Hague tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
In Luxembourg on June 16, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said that progress was being made but there was still not full co-operation.
This had the immediate impact of reinforcing the stance taken by The Netherlands and Belgium that until there is full co-operation with the tribunal, the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), a trade-and-aid deal seen as a precursor to the accession process, cannot be unblocked.
Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen is scheduled to visit Belgrade on July 21, but in the final few weeks before the visit, there seems scant indication that it could see a change in the Dutch position.
Verhagen confirmed that the agenda of his visit to Bulgaria included economic co-operation. However, The Netherlands insisted that as long as Serbia was not fully co-operating with the tribunal, the SAA could not come into effect.
Serbia, naturally, has a different view. Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Delic said that Brammertz had said at the Luxembourg meeting that implementing the SAA would in fact help the Hague co-operation process.
Delic said that Belgrade wanted to persuade Verhagen that Serbia was doing everything it could to finalise co-operation with the tribunal, and not only that, to brief him on other aspects of the country’s efforts towards EU readiness, in the hope of getting The Netherlands to change its stance before the EU ministerial meeting scheduled for July 27.
Serbia has no shortage of backers for its EU hopes. Those who have recently reiterated their support include Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, while in Belgrade, news agency Tanjug reported Russian ambassador Aleksandr Konuzin as saying that Moscow had no objection to Serbia – a strong ally, as evidenced by Russia’s firm backing for Serbia on the Kosovo issue – joining the EU.
Recent polls show that most Serbians favour the country joining the EU. On June 19, the head of Serbia’s EU integration office, Milica Delevic, said that the figure was 61 per cent in favour, while on June 21, Tanjug reported the office as saying that support was 79 per cent, up from 61 per cent in December 2008.
Perhaps one of the most influential backers of Serbia making progress towards EU membership is European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who said on June 22 that Brussels was seeking a way to get the SAA unfrozen.
Taking a position similar to the one that Delic said Brammertz had, Rehn said: "I think that the unfreezing of the interim agreement will have a positive, not negative, impact on Serbia’s co-operation with The Hague.
The second half of the year will see Sweden take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, meaning that it will fall to it to broker any possible deal, although with the current stance of The Netherlands and Belgium, the possibility of a compromise seems unlikely.
Should Serbia manage to get its EU membership application filed by the end of 2009, and its accession process goes smoothly, current belief is that membership could take up to eight years. Media reports in late June suggested that the thinking was that a number of countries would be accepted into the bloc in one go, the others including Macedonia, Montenegro and possibly Albania.
In the meantime, Belgrade is continuing efforts to send signals about its work with the tribunal.
On June 29, foreign minister Vuk Jeremic told the BBC that 46 out of 48 of those indicted in The Hague had been apprehended. Serbia was working with intelligence services and governments to capture and hand over the remaining two. Jeremic said that Serbia was doing a good job in reforms towards the EU, but repeated what has become Belgrade’s current customary message, that the stalling of the SAA was blocking the process.
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Thank God the " Russians have no objections"!!!
Who's Moscow"s little bitch now?
Kidding;)
it is interesting how things have turned around in a short time. US is broke, Russia is saving financially a Scandinavian country (Iceland) and the "pround Serbs" who do things their way, get a nod from Moscow about their relations with Europe.
On top of it, BG ended up to the west of her western neighbor!
Come on Serbia get your house in order so that we can all improve the area!
I don't understand why Serbia has to comply by finding all their war criminals. I'm pretty sure the atrocities committed by the Germans were worse than anything Serbians ever did and they don't have to hand over their war criminals.
Nobody is forcing Croatians or Bosnians to hand over their war criminals. Who can forget Naser Oric's killing of Serbs? And if anyone mentions what happened in Srebrenica as retaliation, they have another thing coming. Before the "Srebrenica Massacre" Bosnians would go into Serbian villages at night and kill every Serb in the village. During the day they would hide out in the protected zones with the peacekeepers. There were 15 Serbian villages that were attacked, and the only survivor was a little boy who watched his mother be murdered. They were told to stop, and they wouldn't, and they were killed.
Who can forget Operation Storm where the Croatians expelled the whole Serb population in their country of 300 000, which I was a part of, and they killed people trying to get out of Croatia on The Trail of Tears along with the help of Bosnian Muslims. Why aren't any of these people being prosecuted? There is always more than one side to a story, and the other side has been focused on for long enough.
Fantastic!
That would be the definition of the term "do it Dutchy way" : Verhagen would love to discuss promotion of the Dutch trade with Serbia, read sell us their junk, but on the other side he is not interested to address the hottest issue between two countries.
Must say real TOP diplomat and real TOP peace of Dutch diplomacy. Either they consider us complete idiots or they are not entitled to do the job they are doing? I was kinda thinking that elected “ TOP” diplomats are there to resolve the major questions in the relation of the countries involved and that they are leaving the talks about flowers and strawberries to someone else and elsewhere?
Real issue is that Dutch do know that they are diplomatically isolated in EU with their unilateral and hypocritical stance concerning Serbia's cooperation with Hague Tribunal and that they are not having any logical and humane arguments for further blocking Serbia’s development and prosperity of our nation.
For Verhagen’s and Dutch genuine barbaric and disrespectful diplomatic action adequate respond from Serbian side should be seize of diplomatic relations. As soon as better.
No country has arrested ALL their criminals and never will, so why is Serbia told they have to comply 100%? This is just an excuse to keep Serbia out. All sticks and no carrots.
Croatia refuses to send some documents to Hague and they are not being pushed this way. They are only documents and yet they are off the hook but Serbia has to find Mladic no matter where is is. What makes them think he is in Serbia anyway? He would be a fool to be in Serbia now. He might be having tea and biscuits with the queen or having a glass of vodka with Medvedev.
Is Serbia supposed to chase him around the world?
How about Bosnia? He is from Bosnia. Why aren't they put under pressure to find him? He is a Bosnian citizen. He was not even in Serbia during the war.
Nobody seems to care about any of this.
And defender of truth, why do you say "civilized world" only if Mladic is caught? What about all the organ harvesting by your brothers? Is this civilized? How about we go after Ceku, Thaci and Hardinaj. Don't say they are innocent. We all know they are not, but just because US says they are innocent we know it doesn't mean a thing.
Serbia needs to arrest the most wanted war criminal in the world Ratko Mladic if they want to join the "civilized" world. It does not matter if they arrested most of the war criminals if the biggest one of them all is still living freely in Serbia and enjoying his life there after having slaughtered thousands of innocent Bosniak civilians. Instead of focusing their efforts on persuading the Netherlands to change their demands they should focus them on arresting Mladic and Hodzic. Once they arrest these war criminals getting the SAA passed will be easy.
whats the point in complying? Bulgaria showed weaknesss and released a KLA terrorist, lets hope Bulgaria never suffers terrorism and realise on Serbia to extrodite anyone. The system needs to work both ways or what we have is victors justice and nothing more.
If the Bulgarians have no respect for interpol warrants then why should Serbia arrest anyone else?