SERBIA:EU FOREIGN ministers have signed a pact with Serbia to promote closer ties between the union and the Balkan state in the run up to parliamentary elections next month.
But under a compromise deal agreed at a meeting yesterday the stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) will not take effect until EU states agree Belgrade is co-operating with the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Belgium and the Netherlands had for weeks blocked signing the agreement until Serbia arrests and hands over former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. But both states yesterday agreed to the compromise arrangement, which states that EU states will not start ratifying the agreement, nor will Serbia receive any trade or other benefits, until Belgrade fully co-operates with the tribunal.
The deal follows concern in the union that radical nationalist forces are on course to win power in the May 11th elections, further complicating already difficult EU-Serbia relations following Kosovo's recent declaration of independence.
Slovene foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel, who chaired the EU meeting in Luxembourg, said the deal sent a strong signal for "Serbia to join us, to come to the European Union". But he added that implementation would depend on the assessment of the EU council whether full co-operation with the war crimes tribunal had been in place.
Serbian president Boris Tadic, who flew to Luxembourg to sign the agreement, said it would provide greater freedom of travel, closer economic integration and removal of trade barriers, and, most importantly, the prospect of more employment for Serbians.
"By signing the agreement today, we have reconfirmed our commitment to further reform and progress and prevented a path of economic isolation," said Mr Tadic, adding that Serbia would like to become an official EU candidate state later this year.
But in Belgrade, nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said the agreement meant nothing and did not represent Serbia.
Outgoing energy minister and senior DSS official Aleksandar Popovic strongly criticised the deal saying: "I believe the next government will annul this agreement."
EU ministers agreed to sign as soon as possible a similar stabilisation agreement with Bosnia. Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said the union had now lined up closer ties with all states in the Balkans. "This is an important signal that goes to the whole of the region," she said on the margins of the EU ministers meeting.
However, the EU again failed to reach agreement on a mandate to begin talks on a partnership deal with Russia following opposition from Lithuania. The Baltic state is objecting to starting talks over concerns that Russia doesn't share European values. "Our position is related to the basic values of European civilisation," Lithuanian foreign minister Petras Vaitiekunas told reporters in Luxembourg. "We want solidarity with the EU. I don't want to put any time frame on negotiations." Lithuania is demanding assurances on Russian energy supplies, judicial co-operation and policy towards frozen conflicts in other former Soviet states.