Serbia makes another u-turn on Europe

ZELJKO PANTELIC

Today @ 10:49 CET

Serbs are said to have a long memory which might help the Serbian leadership sell its latest sharp turn over European policy to its citizens.

After the Council of ministers finally forwarded Serbia's application for EU membership to the European Commission, the official position in Belgrade has swung back to euphoric pro-European rhetoric, new unrealistic promises and an understatement of conditions set by the EU for further progress on the road to membership.

Even foreign minister Vuk Jeremic has stopped talking about Kosovo (Photo: United Nations)

Just one year ago, Serbian officialdom celebrated the 55th anniversary of the communist takeover with plenty of pomp. Back then, Belgrade was visited by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the biggest ally in defending Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo. It also dropped its previous political motto, 'There is no alternative to the EU', and launched the 'Four pillars policy' calling for close ties with Russia, China, the US and the EU.

Vuk Jeremic and Bozidar Djelic, the Serbian ministers for foreign affairs and for European integration, repeatedly stated that if Belgrade were forced to choose between the EU and Kosovo it would pick the latter.

This year, in less than two months, from July to September, Serbia's foreign policy has completely changed once again.

There are several reasons for this. The first is the opinion of the International Court of Justice which found no violation of international law in Kosovo's declaration of independence. The second is the global financial crisis which showed that the Serbian economy would collapse without good relations with the EU.

Thirdly, the 'Kosovo is more important than Europe' policy failed to lift the popularity of president Boris Tadic's party. On the contrary, the former radical Tomislav Nikolic has taken a lead in the polls with his new Progress party.

Even Mr Jeremic has stopped speaking about Kosovo, after more then 150 lobby trips around the world in one year, to lobby for Serbia's position on its former province. Two of the four pillars (China and Russia) have collapsed and, again, Serbia has found there is no alternative to the EU.

In 2008, after the coalition led by president Tadic won the elections, the Serbian government produced an action plan for EU integration of Serbia. It predicted that the country would be an official EU candidate before the end of 2008, would start negotiations for membership in 2009 and would enter the EU in 2012.

The plan was dropped after a few weeks but Serbian top officials continued to say that the country would be technically ready for EU membership in 2012.

Until a few months ago, official optimism liked to recall the old idea, dusted off by Greece, that in 2014, one century after the start of the First World War, the EU could complete its enlargement by admitting all of the western Balkan countries among its ranks.

Now, Serbian media keep referring to the forwarding of the EU application to the commission in such enthusiastic terms that the uninitiated would be forgiven in assuming that the country had already achieved candidate status. Nobody reported that Serbia had been waiting a record ten months to see its bid take at least the first step; Iceland waited less than one week and it took just four months for Montenegro.

The new proclaimed target date for entry in EU is 2016, which implies that Serbia would be ready in 2014.

Croatia got candidate status in 2004, started to negotiate with the EU in 2005, and is still negotiating today. Just few days ago Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, refused to name a date for Croatian accession.

The Serbian government has, however, managed to overcome Dutch resistance on the issue of war crimes. "Full cooperation" with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague is a key condition for European integration, but the Netherlands had strongly insisted for the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander suspected of war crimes and genocide, to be a precondition of any further steps on Serbia's EU track.

http://waz.euobserver.com/887/31146

http://waz.euobserver.com/887/31146