MINISTERS HAVE pledged Ireland’s support for Serbia’s bid for official candidate status at today’s EU summit, as Belgrade seeks a reward for catching the last of its indicted war crimes suspects and making tough concessions over Kosovo.
Less than six months before elections, President Boris Tadic and his government need a boost from Brussels amid fierce criticism from nationalists, who accuse them of betraying Serbia by sending Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes court and entering talks with independent Kosovo.
Most EU states are believed to favour Serbia receiving candidate status now, but Germany and Austria have expressed serious reservations after peacekeepers from both countries were injured in recent clashes with Serbs at roadblocks in northern Kosovo.
Mr Tadic called for the barricades to be dismantled, condemned the violence and agreed to joint monitoring of the border involving Kosovan, Serb and EU officials – a move Serb nationalists call capitulation.
“Based on what has been accomplished, Serbia deserves to obtain the EU candidate status as it is,” Mr Tadic wrote in yesterday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. If it was kept outside, this would be seen as evidence “the special system of values used to define Europe as a community is just an illusion,” he wrote.
Ahead of the summit, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore said Serbia had “made major advances . . . and I am in favour of candidate status”. Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton said Ireland was “very supportive” of Serbia. “The strides Serbia has taken . . . are monumental. Candidate status doesn’t mean accession negotiations are automatically opened and we can use them to encourage further reforms in a step-by-step process,” she added.
Croatia is expected to sign its accession treaty today and will join the bloc in July 2013, while Montenegro hopes to be given a date for the start of negotiations.
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