11.04.08: Serbia: So Close, Yet So Far For Belgrade's EU Dreams - The Diigo Meta page

• 12 Apr 08
  

  Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

  enlargement enlargementpolicy_eu enlargementpolicymemberstates enlargementpolicy_candidates serbia kosovo westernbalkans

  • The European Union is racing against time -- and some of its own member states -- to create incentives for Serbian voters to choose a Western future when they go to the polls for parliamentary elections on May 11.

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     The EU, whose image was tarnished in the eyes of many Serbs when most members backed Kosovo's independence, is dangling the prospect of future membership to Serbia. But Brussels is struggling to give the offer a definitive shape.
     
     The main problems boil down to two names and one abbreviation -- Kosovo, Mladic, and an SAA.
  • Wish List
     
     The speaker of the Serbian parliament, Oliver Dulic, who was in Brussels last week, handed the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee a detailed wish list. The pro-European politicians whom Dulic represents want the EU to sign an SAA with Serbia by the end of this month, give it candidate status by the end of the year, ease visa restrictions by early 2009, and launch accession talks with Serbia in the second half of 2009.
     
     Dulic says such tangible offers could sway Serbian voters on May 11. He said the EU must err on the side of generosity, if anything, to compensate for a feeling in Serbia that the country is always fated to get the sharp end of the stick.

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