Vooruitzicht op EU-lidmaatschap voor Servië (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU on Tuesday (6 March) gave a boost to Serbia's stumbling path to eventual membership of the bloc saying the country could become an official candidate as early as next year.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i said that if both sides this spring could resume negotiations on a stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) - the first step on the path to EU membership - then talks on the pact could be concluded in autumn.

"And in the light of that, achieving candidate status in 2008 is ambitious, but under the best circumstances it can be possible," Mr Rehn said after a meeting with Serbian president Boris Tadic in Brussels.

Talks on the SAA were suspended in May last year because Brussels felt Belgrade was not cooperating enough with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, failing to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and others.

Mr Rehn made clear that this remains an important point for Brussels, saying it requires from Belgrade "concrete and convincing actions that must lead to full co-operation [with the UN court]."

Mr Tadic said cooperation would be "priority number one" for his government adding "I really believe that all indictees have to be in The Hague."

He also noted that it was "very important for our citizens to see a real [EU] perspective," a point Brussels has taken on board as it tries to soften Serbia with warm words about possible union membership in return for Belgrade accepting concessions on the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Mr Tadic is negotiating a power-sharing deal with prime minister Vojislav Kostunica with the aim of forming a government by the end of this month. Both politicians are against an independent Kosovo but Mr Kostunica takes a more hardline stance.

For his part Mr Tadic said "If you are asking me if we can accept Kosovo independence, we cannot do that. But we are not going to make war, we are not going to make problems.''

He said Serbia is "thinking about our territorial integrity but at the same time about our European future."

UN Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari has invited both Mr Tadic and Mr Kostunica for talks in Vienna on 10 March to discuss his blueprint for Kosovo - last week discussions between both the Kosovo and Serbia sides on the UN plan broke off without agreement.

Mr Ahtisaari's outline stops short of mentioning independence but would grant Kosovo its own constitution, army and flag.

The plan must be approved by the UN Security Council before it can be implemented but has already caused tensions between the US, which favours Kosovo independence and Russia, which is against it.

For its part, the EU fears that leaving the issue unresolved will spread instability in the Balkans.