Euopese diplomaten: Servië krijgt status kandidaat-lidstaat (en)
BRUSSELS - EU diplomatic sources say objections raised by Lithuania, Poland and Romania are not serious enough to stop ministers recommending that Serbia gets official candidate status.
French foreign minister Alain Juppe jumped the gun on Monday (27 February) by telling press in Brussels one hour before internal talks on Serbia that the Balkan country is heading for the upgrade.
"There was an agreement today ... At least there were no further objections," he said.
Lithuania, Poland and Romania later at the meeting raised concerns that Russia has too much influence on Serbia and that it continues to mistreat its so-called "Vlach" Romanian minority group.
One EU diplomat told this website on Tuesday morning the complaints are "not party stoppers," however.
He said the negative remarks are due to the fact all EU countries wanted to air their views at a "historic" moment for the Union and to increase diplomatic pressure on reform. "It's good that countries raise these things so that we don't get carried away in a sort of whoopee," the source noted.
"I am sure we'll have a good conclusion," a diplomat from one of the three objecting EU countries said. "I think Serbia will get it in the end," a third EU diplomat added.
Serbian President Boris Tadic and EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton i also voiced optimism late on Monday at a press briefing in the EU capital. "I really hope that tomorrow we will see the General Affairs Council [Gac] move forward on that decision," Ashton said.
In terms of process, if EU foreign ministers at the Gac meeting on Tuesday formally endorse the move, EU leaders are likely to rubber stamp it at a summit on Thursday and Friday.
Serbia will then qualify for EU pre-accession aid and may get the green light from EU leaders in December to open accession talks.
Serbia still has problems with corruption and judicial reform. But the elephant in the room in terms of its EU entry remains the future status of Kosovar Serbs in north Kosovo, who reject central control by Kosovar Albanian authorities - a problem described as a "frozen conflict" by EU diplomats.
The EU candidate decision will come after Belgrade last year handed over its remaining top two war crimes fugitives and last week agreed to let Kosovo to speak under its independent flag in multilateral meetings and to sign international agreements as if it was a fully recognised country.
Its participation in official meetings is to come with a footnote that this is "without prejudice" to the fact it does not have UN recognition, but also that the International Court of Justice says its declaration of independence is legal.
Ashton noted that the European Commission will shortly produce a feasibility study on how the EU can sign legal pacts with Kosovo despite the fact that five EU countries do not recognise it.
An EU official earlier told this website: "We are the best in the world when it comes to squaring the circle. Perhaps there could be a legal agreement accompanied by a declaration that it [for instance, a trade pact] only applies to this and this, but not that [status]."
For their part, Kosovar Albanian nationalists from the Vetevendosje or "Self-Determination" political party last week held street protests in Kosovo to say the footnote on international meetings cements non-recognition.
"The EU is feeding the little octopus [Serbia] so that it can separate it from the big octopus [Russia] but the problem is that the little octopus has its tentacles deep inside Kosovo," Albin Kurti, a Vetevendosje leader, told this website in Pristina late last year.