Serbia ratifies key EU pre-membership accord

Serbia has overcome another hurdle on its path towards EU membership with today’s (9 September) ratification by its parliament of a key pre-accession agreement offering the country closer trade relations and easier travel within the Union.

140 deputies from the 250-seat parliament voted in favour of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), with 26 rejecting it. This means that at least 13 members of the opposition – likely members of the Liberal block, who support EU membership and for this goal would even sacrifice Kosovo – joined the government on this issue.The biggest opposition group, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), collectively abstained. 

The SAA has been one of the hottest topics in Serbian politics in recent months and even led to the collapse of the former government, led by the nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, who argued that signing the accord would imply recognition by Belgrade of Kosovo’s independence. 

The last ‘victim’ of the SAA was the leader of Serbia’s main opposition party, Tomislav Nikolic, who resigned last Friday (5 September) due to internal pressure within his party resulting from his endorsement of the accord. 

Speaking to EURACTIV, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn’s spokesperson Krisztina Nagy welcomed ratification as another measure “bringing the country closer to the EU”. 

The Union had already signed the SAA with Serbia’s President Boris Tadic prior to the country’s parliamentary elections in May, a step aimed at boosting pro-Western forces (EURACTIV 30/04/08). 

The Commission is in favour of unblocking the interim trade deal, which is part of the SAA, to reward Serbia for the positive steps it has taken recently, most notably the arrest of the former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his swift extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. 

However, the 27 EU member states have the final say on the issue, with a unanimous decision required before the accord can come into effect. The Dutch government in particular says it will only give its approval upon Serbia’s full cooperation with the ICTY. This means that Belgrade must first capture other war criminals, most notably General Ratko Mladic (EURACTIV 04/09/08). 

During his trip to Brussels last week, Serbia’s President Boris Tadic reassured the EU that his government was doing “everything possible” to arrest Mladic and Goran Hadzic, another on the tribunal’s most-wanted list. 

ICTY prosecutor Serge Brammertz will travel to Belgrade tomorrow to get a personal picture of Serbia’s efforts before reporting back to the EU’s foreign ministers at their meeting on 15 September. In the event of a positive report, the ministers could decide to give the SAA the green light. 

In a parallel move, Serbian MPs also gave their approval to an important energy deal with Russia, giving the go-ahead to the South Stream gas pipeline project, which is expected to transport 10 billion cu/m of Russian gas per year across the Black Sea to the Balkans and on to other European countries. Serbia’s energy minister said the agreement would make Belgrade a strategic partner of both Russia and the EU. 

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