Serbia towards European Union

European future or domestic power games

"It is disappointing that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement is misrepresented in the Serbian political debate," Ollie Rehn said without mentioning names. "The process of European integration and the process of Kosovo's status are two separate processes. The SAA does not affect Serbia's territorial integrity since Kosovo's status will be decided in another context"


By WAVE Team (with Reuters)
from Belgrade, SERBIA


The European Commission urged Serbia yesterday (on January 9), not to link closer ties with Brussels to the European Union's future role in the breakaway province of Kosovo. The warning came in response to a comment by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica last week that the EU would have to choose between its relations with Belgrade and with Pristina.

"It is sad that Serbia's European future is being offered up on the altar of domestic power games," European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said. He mentioned it was still possible for Belgrade to sign an agreement with the EU later this month that would be the first step in the road to eventual membership, if Serbia moved fast to cooperate more fully with a U.N. war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.

But EU officials are concerned that Kostunica's strident statement could undermine the willingness of member states to interpret flexibly the condition of full cooperation with the Hague tribunal. Incoming EU president Slovenia said on Tuesday it hoped the 27-nation bloc would be able to sign the agreement with Serbia, if possible on Jan. 28.

"It is disappointing that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement is misrepresented in the Serbian political debate," Rehn said without mentioning names. "The process of European integration and the process of Kosovo's status are two separate processes. The SAA does not affect Serbia's territorial integrity since Kosovo's status will be decided in another context," he added.

No Linkage

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic appeared to endorse that position after talks on Wednesday with Rehn and an earlier meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"The process of determining the future status of Kosovo and the process of the European integration of Serbia are two separate processes. So we couldn't really talk about any deal that would link one with the other because these are not linkable," he told reporters.

The question of closer EU ties has become an issue in the campaign for Serbia's Jan. 20 presidential election, with hardline nationalists keen to show they are toughest in defending Belgrade's sovereignty over Kosovo.

EU leaders infuriated Serbian nationalists last month by agreeing in principle to deploy police and civil administrators in Kosovo this year in the run-up to an expected declaration of independence by the province's ethnic Albanian majority.

Serbian Assembly declaration

Serbia said on December 26 it would shun any offer of membership of the European Union or NATO if they recognized the breakaway province of Kosovo as an independent state. Raising the stakes in the bid to block independence, the national assembly voted 220 to 14 in favor of a resolution saying Serbia would not sign any treaty that did not acknowledge its territorial integrity and sovereignty over Kosovo.

It was backed by President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, leaders of the two main parties in Serbia's centre-right ruling coalition, and supported by Radicals and Socialists on the opposition benches.

Focusing on the Stabilization and Association Agreement that Serbia may sign with the EU in January, the resolution said "any treaty Serbia signs, including the SAA, must be in keeping with preservation of (its) sovereignty and territorial integrity".


(Published: 10.01.2008.)

Send your comments