Serbia gets green light on membership bid

The European Union’s member states have referred Serbia’s application for membership in the EU to the European Commission, a first step toward candidacy status.

Ministers agreed the referral in Luxembourg today (25 October) but re-iterated the EU’s policy that further steps toward membership would depend on Serbia’s “full co-operation” with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a United Nations war-crimes court in The Hague.

The language is a compromise between those who wanted to refer Serbia’s application despite a mixed report in June by Serge Brammertz, the ICTY’s chief prosecutor, and the government of the Netherlands, which threatened to block the move.

“The EU underlines that at each stage of Serbia’s path towards EU accession, further steps will be taken when the Council unanimously decides that full co-operation with the ICTY exists or continues to exist,” the ministers decided today. “In this context, the Council will closely monitor the progress reports by the Office of the Prosecutor,” a reference to Brammertz.

Codified statement

The statement codifies the Union’s past practice of taking steps concerning enlargement only with the consensus of the EU’s 27 member states. Prior to today’s meeting, several member governments had taken the view that the Netherlands could be outvoted on Serbia, an option that with today’s decision will no longer be available to the EU.

Steven Vanackere, the foreign minister of Belgium, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, told reporters after the meeting that Serbia had shown a willingness to establish a constructive dialogue with Kosovo and that this step would have to be acknowledged by the EU. He said a “good balance” had been found between sending a positive signal to Belgrade and maintaining war crimes conditionality. “Much remains to be done” before Serbia can enter the EU, he said.

The ministers’ statement said, “the arrest of the two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić, would be the most convincing proof of Serbia’s efforts and co-operation with the ICTY”.

The Commission normally takes around one year to prepare its assessment of a country’s membership application.