EU moves on Serbia membership but wants Mladic captured (Roundup)

Oct 25, 2010, 13:23 GMT

Luxembourg - European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed to let Serbia take a small step towards eventual membership - but said the capture of war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic was the price of any further concessions.

Mladic is accused of masterminding the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the enclave of Srebrenica in 1995. The enclave had been protected by Dutch peacekeepers, and the Netherlands has been demanding Mladic's arrest ever since.

EU ministers agreed to forward Serbia's membership application, which it submitted in December, to the European Commission for technical analysis, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said.

'I think this is a very important step forward in the accession process,' said Vanackere, who chaired the meeting in Luxembourg.

The EU executive is now expected to analyse Serbia's legal code, political standards and general diplomatic behaviour to see whether the country is ready for EU accession.

'Today's decision is the expression of the strong EU support to Serbia and its leadership. This support is paralleled by equally high expectations,' EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said.

But at the same time, member states stressed that 'further steps will be taken when the council (of EU states) unanimously decides that full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) exists.'

'Serbia's assistance in the key matter of the arrest of the two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and (Croatian Serb leader) Goran Hadzic ... would be the most convincing proof of Serbia's efforts and cooperation with ICTY,' their joint declaration said.

Most decisions on EU accession have to be taken by unanimity, but some technical issues have in the past been open to majority voting. Monday's statement gives the Netherlands complete veto rights over every future step in Serbia's bid.

'With every step on the road to Europe, Serbia has to prove it fully cooperates with the tribunal. This is about the international rule of law,' Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal only took office on October 14 with the swearing-in of a minority government. EU officials said the bloc was keen not to hand him an embarrassing defeat at his first EU meeting.

Members of the Dutch parliament have long said that they will only consider that Serbia is cooperating with ICTY once Mladic, in particular, is handed over.

'There is a risk' that Monday's statement will therefore leave Serbia's EU hopes hanging on the fate of a single man, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt acknowledged.

Bildt, who helped broker the Dayton peace accords in the Balkans in the 1990s, had pushed for ministers to take a less aggressive stance towards Serbia, arguing that the EU should take into account the strongly pro-EU stance of Serbia's President Boris Tadic.

'Even the Netherlands have to see that a union is a union and not a collection of national vetoes,' Bildt said.

Vanackere stressed the importance of rewarding Tadic for his acceptance in September of technical talks with breakaway Serbian province Kosovo.

'It is clear that the decision of today has some linkage with this positive and constructive attitude,' Vanackere said.

The commission is expected to take 12-18 months to finalize its opinion on Serbia's readiness for membership talks. No further EU decisions would be needed in the interim, giving Belgrade a window of opportunity to track Mladic down.

Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac welcomed the move.

'Serbia's European journey is unstoppable,' he told reporters in Belgrade.

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