Croatia Monday welcomed a European Union decision to examine Serbia’s candidacy for admission, saying it would help stability in the volatile Balkans region, the foreign ministry said.

The decision, reached earlier Monday by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, is a “step of a big importance on Serbia’s European path,” a foreign ministry statement said.

The move “gives a positive signal to other southeastern European countries.

“It is a contribution to further stabilization of the region…which is in the strategic interest of all countries in southeastern Europe,” it said.

EU foreign ministers called on the European Commission to offer its opinion on Belgrade’s bid to join the bloc–a first step in a country gaining formal status as a candidate for admission.

The commission is expected to issue its opinion in the second half of 2011.

In return, the EU demanded stepped-up cooperation from Belgrade with the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and renewed efforts to arrest notorious Balkans war criminals such as Ratko Mladic.

Of the six former Yugoslav republics–Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia–only the latter is an EU member.

Among the other five, Croatia is the most advanced on the path towards joining the EU, hoping to gain admission to the 27-nation bloc by 2012.

The former Yugoslavia broke apart in a series of bloody wars in the 1990s.
 
October 25, 2010
AFP

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