Summit confirms EU prospects for Western Balkans

Participants in the second EU-Western Balkans summit have
reiterated their conviction that the region’s future lies in
the European Union.

On the margins of the 22 November General Affairs Council,
the second EU-Western Balkans summit reiterated EU
member states’ unreserved support for Western Balkans countries’
prospective membership of the Union. The idea for the forum
emerged and was launched at the Chalkidiki summit in June
2003.

In its decisions pertinent to the Western Balkans region, the
Council extended the mandate of the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM)
until 31 December 2005 and prolonged the mandate of Maryse Daviet
at the head of the EUMM. 

The Council also approved the signing of ‘framework agreements’
with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and
Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on the
general principles for their participation in Community
programmes.

The participants have also agreed to issue a general call for
all countries to provide the necessary support to the Hague
Tribunal in apprehending the region’s war crimes suspects.

In a related development, media reports said that Kosovo’s
emerging new coalition government is set to include the Alliance
for the Future of Kosova political party, whose leader, Ramush
Haradinaj, used to be a senior member of the now dispersed Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA). According to the reports, Haradinaj has been
nominated by the party to the post of prime minister. He is widely
known to be under investigation for war crimes committed between
1997 and 1999. 

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