Serbia's tortuous journey towards European Union

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World News Analyst Jesús Torquemada. Photo: EiTB

Serbia has started a journey that takes to European Union, but it is not sure that it will overcome the numerous obstacles it will find along the way.

The Stabilization and Association Agreement that the European Union and Serbia signed yesterday is the first step to enter the Union. If the agreement works, then it is time to take a decision to considerate this country as a candidate to enter the Union, and it is after when real negotiations start in order to set the entry.

The signing of this agreement has been done in a rush, for the forthcoming May 11th legislative elections in Serbia.

Many Serbs are furious with the European union, which they consider to be responsible for Kosovo’s independence, and they do not either forget NATO’s bombing against Serbia in 1999.

So it is feared that Serbian Nationalists will be the ones to win the elections, who are in favor of isolating from Europe and establish a narrower relationship with Russia.

The agreement signed in Luxembourg yesterday expects to tighten the most Pro-European sectors, headed by the present, Boris Tadic.

However, the agreement has some conditions that are almost impossible to carry out. The main one is that Government in Belgrade is demanded to collaborate in the capture of Serbo-Bosnian war criminals, above all Karadzic and Mladic.

Many Serbians consider them heroes, so if government arrest them, it will cause another nationalist and anti-European, just exactly the opposite wanted with the agreement signed yesterday.