EU ministers break ice with Serbia

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic met his counterparts from all 27 EU states for breakfast at a one-time country estate of the late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in Slovenia, but was not expected to stay for a later meeting with other Western Balkans countries, including Kosovo.

"What intelligent person could expect him to sit at the same table as (Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim) Thaci so soon?" an official of the Slovenian EU presidency said. Diplomats said Jeremic would leave immediately after the breakfast to avoid crossing paths with Thaci, due to join ministers from Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania to discuss the entire region's path to EU membership.

For most EU ministers, the session with the pro-Western Jeremic was the first high-level contact with Serbia since it was angered by their acceptance of Kosovo's Feb. 17 secession. Protesters torched several Western embassies in Belgrade.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the meeting was a chance to underline Serbia's prospect of eventual membership of the bloc and urge Serbs to choose a European future rather than "self-isolation" and "a road to nowhere". On Friday, Rehn dangled the carrot of visa-free travel for Serbs in the hope of boosting the pro-European camp in Belgrade ahead of a crucial parliamentary election on May 11. "We expect we should be able to conclude such a road map for visa-free travel with Serbia before the end of April," he told a news conference on the first day of the EU ministers' meeting.

VISA-FREE

Serbs have needed a visa to travel to EU countries since the wars that followed Yugoslavia's break-up in the 1990s. As a result, most young Serbs who will take part in the election -- which analysts say amounts to a referendum on the country's EU future -- have never been abroad.

Rehn made clear a visa liberalisation road map would not lead to immediate visa-free travel, because Serbia would first have to meet standards for biometric passports, reliable border controls and other security measures to the EU's satisfaction. However, Brussels hopes even the prospect will give beleaguered pro-European forces in Belgrade a political boost.

Outgoing nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said this week Serbs should be ready to forgo EU membership "for many, many years" and instead fight to reverse Kosovo's independence, which was endorsed by Washington and most EU member states.

Rehn said Brussels was ready to accelerate Serbia's progress towards membership, including giving it candidate status, "but for this Serbia itself needs to reaffirm its European choice".

Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia may be prepared to rule in coalition with the extreme nationalist Radical Party, which has won the most votes in the last two ballots. Such an alliance would seriously cloud the outlook for pro-Western President Boris Tadic and his liberal allies. Rehn made clear he would support the pro-European bloc. "In order to materialise Serbia's European perspective, we would welcome such a government which is willing to work in order to pave the way for Serbia's European future," he said.

Belgrade would also have to demonstrate full cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal (ICTY), which is still hunting two top Bosnian Serb suspects. The Netherlands and Belgium have blocked quick signing of an agreement on closer ties with Belgrade until it delivers Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, believed to be in hiding in Serbia.