Serbia:The EU has welcomed the re-election of Serbia's pro-western president Boris Tadic and pledged to speed up the Balkan state's path towards future membership of the union.
"Your victory comes at a critical moment for Serbia and the western Balkans," European Commission president José Manuel Barroso told Mr Tadic in a message congratulating him on his victory yesterday. "We wish to accelerate Serbia's progress towards the EU."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also welcomed Mr Tadic's victory over Tomislav Nikolic, a pro-Russian nationalist hardliner, who had won the first round of voting in the presidential contest on January 20th.
EU diplomats had feared that a Nikolic victory could spark a dangerous confrontation between Serbia and the EU over the breakaway province of Kosovo, which is expected to declare independence possibly as early as this week. "The results for me at least signalled the wish of the majority of the people in Serbia who want to continue the path towards Europe, and I'd like to say Europe is very happy with that," said Mr Solana, who praised the high turnout in Sunday's election.
To try to tempt Serbian politicians to stay on a pro-EU course, the union is offering to sign an interim partnership deal with the Balkan state on Thursday. It was unable to offer a full Stabilisation and Association Agreement deal - the first legal step towards full EU membership - because of Dutch concerns that Serbia has not co-operated fully with the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But it remains uncertain if Serbia will sign the accord, given Kosovo's expected declaration of independence.
Meanwhile, EU diplomats agreed to send a police and civil administration mission to Kosovo.