The European Union ready to resume talks with Serbia
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BELGRADE, May 17 (Itar-Tass) - The European Union has said it is ready to resume talks on Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia. The negotiations were interrupted more than a year ago at the request of the Hague Tribunal’s chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte.
The EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the talks would resume as soon as the European Union gets convinced that the new government pursues a policy towards the EU integration and cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
On Wednesday, Olli Rehn was received by Serb President Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the newly appointed Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.
Olli Rehn didn’t explain whether the extradition of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and the commander of the Bosnian Serb army Ratko Mladic – both accused of war crimes – to the Hague was still a pre-condition for the resumption of Serbia’s talks with the European Union or it would be enough for Belgrade to demonstrate its will to cooperate with the Tribunal.
President Tadic told reporters that Serbia would never be in the European Union if it fails to bring its cooperation with the Hague Tribunal to the end. “I find it hard to say when all the defendants are going to be handed over to the Tribunal but I can assure you that we are working on it at full pace,” the president went on to say.
In the meantime, an attempt to catch General Ratko Mladic in the center of Belgrade was thwarted on May 15. The general was not caught but the security policy seriously abused its powers. Without any court warrants, the policemen raided and searched a military hotel in Belgrade in which resigned officers and their families are temporary staying. They also tried to establish the identity of occasional passers-by, said Tomislav Nikolic, the leader of the Serb Radical Party.
The radicals and the Socialists could have disrupted the vote for a new coalition government in the Serb parliament but didn’t do that in a bid to end a political crisis in Serbia.
