Oorlogsmisdaden achtervolgen relatie EU-Servië ook na de Servische verkiezingen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Serbia's election result has given new impetus to an EU debate on how to unfreeze Belgrade's EU integration process, with some member states keen to give moderates a boost by accepting softer conditions for compliance with the UN's war crimes tribunal, the ICTY.

"The problem is not [war crimes suspect] Mladic. It is how Serbia cooperates with the conditions of ICTY. What we expect from Belgrade is an appropriate gesture," Romanian foreign minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu told EUobserver on Monday (22 January), echoing a position shared by Italy and Greece.

"The moment a leading personality such as the UN's Carla del Ponte tells the EU that Serbia has taken appropriate steps towards compliance, I am sure that talks relating to the SAA [the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU] shall take another turn," he added.

Pro-EU Serb factions such as the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Serbia and G17 Plus are currently in talks to form a new government that would keep radicals out of power, but the SAA negotiations remain frozen since last May after Belgrade failed to hand over war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.

Speaking before Sunday's election, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn suggested an "appropriate gesture" could consist of a strong political commitment to capture fugitives and strengthening internal security agencies to help do the job.

On Monday the Finnish commissioner talked of "appropriate actions which should lead to the arrest" of Mladic, while promising to meet Serb moderate leaders in Belgrade "in the coming weeks" and hold a "profound discussion" with EU states on the SAA in mid-February.

But other EU members such as the Netherlands, France and the UK as well as the UN tribunal itself are showing no signs of softening their stance on "full compliance" with the ICTY for now, a phrase implying that Mladic must be behind bars before any SAA move.

"We have pleaded for fully upholding ICTY conditionality," Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot said. "If the EU says that we stick to certain criteria [for enlargement] then we should stick to these criteria."

"The position of the tribunal hasn't changed," a spokeswoman for Ms Del Ponte said. "Outstanding fugitives such as Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are to be delivered to the tribunal. They have been fugitives for 12 years and this is long enough."

UN proposal

Meanwhile, the formation of a pro-EU government in Serbia could be complicated by the UN's plan to propose giving Kosovo "provisional independence" in a document due out in late January or early February - right in the middle of sensitive coalition talks.

The Serbian Radical Party has made political gains from accusing pro-EU factions of planning to "surrender" Kosovo - a majority ethnic-Albanian province ruled by the UN since 1999 - in a message that helped it scoop the largest single share of votes in Sunday's poll.

"[The UN] proposal will come out after the election result. I don't think it would be a good idea to put off discussions," German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, amid fears that Kosovar Albanian frustration in the wait for independence could boil over into violence.

What radicals?

EU foreign ministers and US diplomats reacting to Sunday's vote brushed under the carpet the 28.5 percent result secured by Serb radicals, saying the collective victory for pro-EU parties was a better measure of the country's mood.

"The majority from the elections is a majority which is for democratic forces," EU top diplomat Javier Solana said. "The majority of Serbia's citizens have spoken out in favor of a secure, prosperous future inside the Euro-Atlantic community," the US ambassador in Belgrade stated.

International monitors also praised the elections on technical grounds in a country that saw a popular revolution just seven years ago. "The elections in Serbia were free and fair," the Vienna-based OSCE said, AFP reports. "It bodes well for Serbia's future."