Serbian President Boris Tadic submitted his country's application, a five-page document, to Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt in Stockholm on 22 December.
Tadic, whose victory at the general elections last May was seen as crucial to the country's integration into Europe, said Belgrade's target date for accession was 2014.
Olli Rehn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt were also present at the Stockholm ceremony, which marked the closure of Sweden's six-month presidency of the European Union.
Serbia has repeatedly been advised not to rush with its application, as the present legal framework for EU-Serbia relations, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), is yet to enter into force (EurActiv 10/02/09).
As a consequence, the EU's reaction to the event was rather low-key.
Swedish European Affairs minister Cecilia Malmström said on her blog that Serbia's EU candidacy request marked a "turning point" for Serbia and the European Union. All former Yugoslav republics are welcome to join the EU once they have met the necessary criteria, she added, stressing that there was strong consensus among EU countries on this issue.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Serbia has the capacity and determination to beat all records for fastest EU accession, claiming that it will overtake many countries that are currently ahead of Belgrade on the road to the EU.
In an interview published on the Serbian government website, however, he did not give a clear indication as to whether Serbia would be able to achieve candidate status by the end of 2010.
Candidate status is granted once all EU countries have accepted the membership bid, entrusting the European Commission to submit a lengthy questionnaire to the applicant country. On the basis of the Commission's answers, they can then decide to launch accession negotiations.
So far, Croatia and Macedonia are the only countries in the Western Balkans to have reached 'candidate country' status, although accession talks with the latter have not been opened due to a bilateral dispute with Greece.
EU diplomats told EurActiv that Serbia was seen as an EU member "within the [2010-2020] decade" but no-one had ventured to suggest any dates.
'First step in a long process'
Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgaria's ambassador to Belgrade, told this website that the filing of the application was only the first step in a long process.
"We know from our own experience that from the time of application until effective membership, many years will pass, 12 years in the case of Bulgaria," he said.
Negotiation years are in fact "years of reform" for the aspiring member, Dimitrov added. Strictly speaking, the candidate country is not in a give-and-take dialogue with Brussels, he explained. Rather, it needs to take on board the entire body of EU legislation and undergo a deep transformation under EU scrutiny, he said.
The diplomat added that his country was ready to share its recent EU experiences with Serbia, "including the negative experiences," to help Belgrade to avoid making the same mistakes.
Kosovo problem still looms large
As for the specifics of Belgrade's accession bid, the ambassador admitted that Serbia faced particular challenges, in particular the need to achieve "full cooperation" with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as well as the Kosovo problem, as Serbia currently rejects the unilateral declaration of independence by its former province.
"Serbia says that the European integration process and Kosovo problem are unrelated issues. But there is of course an indirect impact. A lot would depend on the degree of attention that the international community is going to dedicate to any of these issues," Dimitrov said.
Dimitrov admitted that there had been problems with the participation of Kosovo in regional cooperation, due to Serbia's insistence that its former province be represented only under its UN title 'Kosovo under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/99'.
Asked if mutual accusations by Croatia and Serbia of genocide during the 1991-1995 wars, which have been taken to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, would further complicate Belgrade and Zagreb's accession bids, the diplomat recalled that good neighbourly relations ranks among the most important political criteria for accession.
"Without having cleared its relations with its neighbours, without developing regional cooperation, it would be very difficult to expect an advance in EU integration. All countries involved should very carefully consider the consequences of such an attitude," said Dimitrov.
