Solana hopeful on Serbia's EU membership, visa free travel (Roundup)

Jul 13, 2009, 15:49 GMT

Belgrade - The European Union's top diplomat Javier Solana said Monday in Belgrade that Serbian citizens will soon receive good news from Brussels regarding visa-free traveling.

'In a few days you will receive very good news on the visa regime liberalization for the Serbian people,' Solana said after meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Belgrade.

The EU commission is expected to adopt recommendations for the lifting of visa restrictions on July 14 for the Balkan states Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Solana also said he hopes that Serbia will soon take the next step towards EU membership.

'For us in the European Union, to deepen the relationship with your country is a fundamental objective,' he said. 'I hope very much that soon we will have a much deeper institutional relationship between Serbia and the EU.'

The EU in 2008 signed a stabilization and association agreement with Serbia - a crucial step of a country toward membership - but immediately suspended it over Belgrade's reluctance to bring war criminals to justice.

Solana will meet with highest ranking Serbian officials during his visit and is expected to press them for the arrest of the remaining two fugitive war crime suspects wanted by the UN tribunal in The Hague

The two fugitives are the Serb leader of an insurgency in Croatia, Goran Hadzic, and the much better known and highly sought Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic, wanted for atrocities such as the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Solana was also set to discuss Kosovo, a former Serbian province with an ethnic-Albanian majority which declared unilateral independence last year with support from the West, principally the United States and a majority of EU nations.

The EU has sent a law-enforcing mission to Kosovo to help it build state institutions, but now wants more support from Belgrade. Serbia however maintains a claim of property over the province and remains hostile to efforts aimed at institution-building in Kosovo.

After talks in Belgrade, Solana was on Monday and Tuesday set to visit Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro.