The European Union, eager to encourage pro-European Serbians voting in a presidential election runoff, invited Serbia yesterday to sign an interim political accord on February 7, days after Sunday’s decisive poll.
The 27 EU foreign ministers were unable to agree on signing a full Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Belgrade as The Netherlands insisted it must first show full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.
Instead they agreed, after hours of debate, to sign an interim agreement on cooperation covering trade and visas.
“The EU proposes an interim political agreement on cooperation between the EU and Serbia, providing a framework for making progress on political dialogue, free trade, visa liberalization and educational cooperation, to be signed on February 7, 2008,” a statement issued by the EU ministers said.
“This is a text that will open up doors for Serbia to the EU,” Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU presidency, told a news conference after chairing the meeting.
Tadic boost
Many European diplomats believe signing at least an interim deal on trade would boost Serbia’s pro-European President Boris Tadic in his tough fight against nationalist challenger Tomislav Nikolic, a pro-Russian hardliner.
Although the presidency has little power, EU leaders are keen to see Tadic win to bolster pro-European forces ahead of an expected declaration of independence by Serbia’s breakaway Kosovo province.
Nikolic took a five-point lead in last Sunday’s first round.
A Serbian analyst said delaying the SAA any longer would “fuel a widely present perception of permanent exclusion and unparalleled conditioning.”
“Conservatives would only benefit,” Srdjan Gligorijevic, chief analyst for the Belgrade-based International and Security Affairs Center think tank, told Reuters. “Serbia needs more collaborative relations with the EU, not just a carrot-and-stick approach.”
European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had earlier urged the ministers to agree to sign the SAA this week and make ratification conditional on full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.
But participants said The Netherlands and Belgium blocked that move to demand the arrest and transfer of former Bosnian-Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, believed to be hiding in Serbia.
Mladic is wanted on genocide charges over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 7,000 Bosnian Muslims.
‘Strong signal’
“We should today send a very strong signal of a European future to the Serbian people by deciding to sign an SAA shortly,” Rehn told reporters just before the meeting.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also backed an early move to sign the SAA with Serbia.
But Dutch European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans said his country, which has led opposition to taking a lenient line on Belgrade, could block any early step. “We will not sign till we have full cooperation with the ICTY,” he told reporters.
The leaders of Kosovo’s ethnic-Albanian majority, who make up 90 percent of the breakaway province’s 2 million people, say they are within weeks of declaring independence from Serbia.
Russia warns USA and EU over Kosovo independence and has drafted action plan
Russia warned the United States and European Union yesterday that it would take a series of unidentified measures if Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.
Russia’s Kosovo negotiator, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, declined to give any details about the steps but said a recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the West would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe in the province.
When asked if Russia had a plan of action if Kosovo declared independence, he said: “Yes, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has prepared a whole host of steps and measures. These measures fully accord to our position on independence for Kosovo.” The leaders of Kosovo’s ethnic-Albanian majority, who make up 90 percent of the breakaway province’s 2 million people, say they are within weeks of declaring independence from Serbia.
The United States and major European Union powers are expected to recognize the move despite opposition from Belgrade and Russia, Serbia’s main big power ally.
Russia has been trying to show its clout on the world stage by playing a tough diplomatic game against the USA and EU over Kosovo, using its huge energy clout and permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council to hinder independence.
Russian officials say independence for Kosovo would destabilize the Balkans and fuel separatism all over Europe and the former Soviet Union, including in breakaway regions Moscow supports in the Caucasus.
“Independence for Kosovo would lead to a division of the province, the isolation of its Serbian area,” Botsan-Kharchenko said.
“The result of unilateral recognition of independence could be a situation close to a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, adding that Serb refugees would flow into northern Kosovo and Serbia.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign to halt killings and ethnic cleansing by Serb forces against the 90 percent ethnic-Albanian majority in the province.