Serbia - a move towards European integration (1)

A last-ditch effort for EU

The chief obstacle in Serbia's path of joining the European Union is still in its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Following the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the public opinion shuddered at the Netherlands' solitary refusal to unfreeze the EU trade and aid pact. As a foreign scrape goat for what is happening to us, after Javier Solana and Carla Del Ponte, for the first time the name of Maxim Verhagen was mentioned


By DANICA VLAČIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


Although the EU wishes to extend to include countries in South East Europe, Serbia is nowhere near the gateway to the EU. Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia have already been granted candidate country status. Albania hopes to join the club as well. Montenegro has submitted its application for EU membership whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement and put the Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters into force. The recently signed EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement will not yet be implemented in its trade-related part (liberalisation of trade, reduction and abolition of custom duties on EU products), despite the expectations in post-election optimistic Serbia, where the potential EU candidate status was already rejoiced. However, the Agreement will not be ratified nor its benefits become available to Serbia until certain conditions are met. Should we think about who is responsible for such slow progress or think that it is all due to concatenation of circumstances? It is a question the social and political elite do not have time to discuss about.

Political will

"Political will" is the new buzz phrase in the mutual accusations between the ruling parties on one side and the opposition representatives and ex-coalition partners on the other. EU Officials are also no strangers to the term, and use it whenever asked for analysis of Serbia's relatively slow progress in EU integration. Nevertheless, there is a question of whether the lack of ''political will'' is present only in the government, chosen to protect the interests and work in the name of Serbian people. We may ask ourselves if the population itself has sufficient political will power which politicians could draw from, while making moves in the right direction, (back) to Europe. According to a survey (published in October 2008) from Strategic Marketing Agency, 74% of the people interviewed supports joining the EU. The figure is not disturbing in its own light, but it is in view of the fact that it varies greatly - it was 54% in June, 65% in July, 54% in August, and 62% September. We are faced with the bitter truth of having 55% of the people does not know what EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement stands for. The message that emerges (not only from the people, but occasionally from the politicians as well) is: ''We want to hurry up to join the EU, but without working a sweat. "

The acting government argues that the outcome of the last presidential elections, in which Boris Tadic and his Democratic Party won on the wings of EU integration agenda is proof enough that there is sufficient ''political will'' present. This view ignores the fact that the opponent, Tomislav Nikolic, who does not see entering the EU as a priority, secured too large a number of votes to say confidently that people in Serbia do not lack ''political will''. Lately, the phrase ''political will" is increasingly being used in terms of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. The arrest of Radovan Karadzic should have convinced even the greatest of skeptics - the Dutch, that the government is willing to arrest war crimes suspects and bring them to justice.

Civil war rather than democratic revolution

Leaving the issue of political will aside, there are still a lot of hurdles, of external and internal nature, on Serbia's path to European integration.

At the time when Central and East European countries were in the middle of the 'velvet revolution', Serbia was involved in what will soon be known as one of the most destructive conflicts in the Balkans ever. The war, the economic destabilisation and flagging economy (put back by eight-year-long economic sanctions) and the disregard for human rights and dignity, not only spoilt the chances for meeting the EU criteria, but completely made the whole thing pointless. Milosevic's revoking of the autonomy of Kosovo unconstitutionally, in addition to some other events led to the NATO bombing in 1999. While other countries hurried out of the transition, Serbia was not in the state of stagnation, but even worse - the retrogression. After the so-called Serbian October Revolution in 2000., the country entered the race other countries were already winning, as seen in the last two enlargements of the EU.

It is to be stressed that no other country aiming to become a candidate country has any issues in the internal politics sector. Trying to keep Serbia-Montenegro entity on its feet additionally burdened both countries and prevented them from concentrating on more vital goals. The slowing down was also a result of the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, the Prime Minister in the midst of democratic changes (if that is what they truly were). All this made the European officials very skeptic of it and how Serbia will meet the Copenhagen Criteria (political, economic and legal), so the conditions were changed. The main goal is creating a stable political situation, as seen in the name of the Agreement itself (Stabilisation Agreement). However the imposition of additional conditions is highly unpopular, which enables the opposition to use it in its attacks on the government, claiming it is currying favour with Brussels.

Yet more conditions

The chief obstacle in Serbia's path of joining the European Union is still in its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Following the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the public opinion shuddered at the Netherlands' solitary refusal to unfreeze the EU trade and aid pact. As a foreign scrape goat for what is happening to us, after Javier Solana and Carla Del Ponte, for the first time the name of Maxim Verhagen was mentioned. The Tribunal has been sending the same message for ages - the full cooperation means arresting Ratko Mladic and handing him over. The European officials explain that this arrest would not only be a matter of principles and proving the Dutch wrong, but would also put an important message across: that Serbia can control the remains of Milosevic's regime, namely DB (the Serbian secret security service).

Speaking of problems that we have and the neighbouring countries do not, we must mention the vexed question of state borders. It seems that the government is first to proclaim that the EU integration is a separate issue from holding on to Kosovo. Only rarely does someone from the EU mention the two issues together. The European Union does not need to accept a country with territorial issues, and the more so because most EU countries have already recognised Kosovo's independence. It is difficult to imagine that any Serbian government would be able to sign an agreement for neighbourly relations with Kosovo and manage to maintain the peace and stability in the country. The possible solution lies in the platitude that the breakup is meaningless if it is only temporary, as both parties would like to belong again to the same entity - the European Union. The radical democratic and economical development of them both would make the disintegration pointless.

* to be continued...


(Published: 10.01.2009.)