Serbia signs pact with EU to enter the Union

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Serbian president Boris Tadic and the EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana. Photo: EFE

Serbia and the European Union signed a long-delayed pact on closer ties on Tuesday that was a first step towards eventual EU membership, days before a parliamentary election in Belgrade.

The accord had been held up over Serbia's failure to arrest and hand over key war crime indictees such as wartime Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.

Under a compromise proposed by the Netherlands and Belgium, the 27 EU states agreed not to ratify the pact nor give Serbia its trade or aid benefits until all agree that Belgrade is fully cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

The agreement was signed in Luxembourg by EU ministers and Serbia's deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Bozidar Djelic, in the presence of President Boris Tadic.

The EU hopes the pact will bolster Tadic's pro-Western reformers in the May 11 vote and the EU leaders made clear appeals to Serbian voters to choose a European future. Polls show nationalists have a slight lead, boosted by anger at the Western-backed secession of Kosovo in February.

"Today is a very important day for Serbia and for Europe," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at the ceremony.

"I'd like to say something to the younger generation of Serbians: here is your house, here is your place. Let's keep together and work to make that day (of EU accession) as soon as possible."

Djelic said Serbia would need to make courageous decisions in the coming weeks to pursue its European future.

"We need to tie our little boat to the big European ship," he said, quoting a Serbian philosopher. "I'm a Serb patriot and I'm convinced that it is a true patriotic day today."