Serbia welcomed Monday a “new era” on its path towards joining the European Union and pledged to do its utmost to arrest  Balkan war crimes fugitive Rato Mladic, a condition for making further progress in its EU bid, Beta news agency reported.

A decision by EU foreign ministers earlier Monday in Luxembourg to call on the European Commission to offer its opinion on Serbia’s E.U. bid begins a “new era” in Belgrade efforts to join the bloc, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said, according to Beta.

Serbia could receive EU candidate status in late 2011 and it would launch EU membership talks immediately afterwards, said Djelic, speaking in Luxembourg.

“At this moment Serbia’s goal is not only to think about getting candidate status but also to open EU talks immediately after getting it,” he said.

Monday’s deal demanded increased co-operation from Serbia with the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and renewed efforts to find and arrest Bosnian Serb wartime military chief Mladic.

Mladic was indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICTY in 1995, wanted in the main for the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, the worst single atrocity on European soil since World War II.  He is also wanted for masterminding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which cost 10,000 lives.

“We will do everything, regardless of conditions imposed by EU, to find [Ratko] Mladic and make him answer for everything he had been charged of,” Djelic said.

Serbia applied for EU membership last December but won support for its bid after agreeing last month to start a dialogue with its breakaway province of Kosovo.

October 25, 2010
AFP

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