EU Gives Serbia Trade Agreement Go-Ahead

European Union ministers have opened the door to an interim trade agreement with Serbia after hearing from the chief prosecutor of the Hague war crimes tribunal about its improved cooperation with Belgrade.



Prosecutor Serge Brammertz of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, said before meeting the EU ministers on December 7 that his report would mirror what he told the United Nations Security Council in New York last week.



“Since the last briefing to the council, Serbia’s cooperation with my office has continued to progress,” Brammertz told the Security Council on December 3.



After this week’s meeting, the EU softened its demand that Serbia hand over its two remaining war crimes suspects to the ICTY before any further progress on European integration.



An interim trade agreement would be the starting point of negotiations under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, which is the forerunner to full EU membership. The SAA was signed on April 29, 2008 but the EU immediately froze negotiations when The Netherlands - backed by Belgium - called on Belgrade to first arrest the former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic and the ex- Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic and deliver them to The Hague.



Both men face war crimes charges at the court and have evaded capture since the war in the western Balkans ended in 1995.



Brammertz’s report this week led Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen to ease his country’s stance and support the implementation of the trade agreement.



“Less than six months ago Mr Verhagen asked [Brammertz] if he thought Serbian authorities could do more [to arrest the fugitives] and Brammertz said ‘Yes, I think so’,” Gijs Korevaar, a spokesman for Verhagen, told IWPR.



“Mr Verhagen repeated the question on Monday. Brammertz said, ‘No, I do not think they can do more. They are doing all they can’.



“That’s why the government agreed for the interim agreement to be implemented on 1 January [2010].”



Although the interim trade agreement will now be implemented, the SAA itself remains frozen. The Netherlands has said that it intends to keep the pressure on Serbia to arrest its fugitives. Mladic is charged with orchestrating the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serb forces massacred about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.



“Brammertz said [Serbian authorities] are cooperating with the ICTY but it is not certain that they will keep cooperating on this level,” Korevaar said.



Asked if this week’s change in position from The Netherlands represented a relaxing of the conditionality for Serbia entering the EU, Korevaar said this was not the case.



“It’s not really so because it’s only the interim agreement that is in force and ratification of the SAA is still on hold,” he said.



“Discussions will be held in June whether or not to start the ratification process but that is not certain yet.”



However, Korevaar did not rule out The Netherlands allowing ratification of the SAA even if Mladic and Hadzic are not delivered to The Hague.



“Failing the apprehension of Mladic and Hadzic, [EU ministers] will look very closely at the next report Brammertz will write,” he said.



“The apprehension [of Mladic and Hadzic] is the best proof of cooperation [with the Hague tribunal].”



The decision in Brussels has pleased Serbia’s pro-European government, which had previously said that pressure from 27-member bloc was not helpful in the process of tracking the fugitives.



The EU last month also agreed to ease visa rules for citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.



“The visa liberalisation and unfreezing of the interim trade agreement both show that we are a country with more credibility in Europe and the world, a country which foreign investors look at as a safe destination for placing their capital and opening new jobs,” Serbian president Boris Tadic said at a congress of European socialists in Prague this week, according to the website of Belgrade broadcaster B92.



Despite the offer of the trade agreement now, some observers say Serbia will still need to improve cooperation with the tribunal if it is to achieve its wider aims.



“The actual implementation of the interim agreement is only the first step in terms of EU integration and so Serbia still wants a lot more from the European Union in terms of attaining full membership,” Sabine Freizer, Europe Director at International Crisis Group, told IWPR.



“So I hope that Serbia will increase its efforts to ensure full cooperation with the ICTY and ensure that Mladic gets to The Hague and move forward on its European integration track.”



Although the EU decided to offer the trade agreement this week, Freizer does not believe that member states will allow Serbia to become a member until full cooperation with the Hague tribunal is achieved.



“I think the feeling [within the EU] is that Serbia should fully meet its commitments to the ICTY and ensure full cooperation with the ICTY until actual membership talks begin,” Freizer said.



But however firm a line Brussels takes with Serbia, Freizer said that joining the EU does not depend on Serbia putting Mladic and Hadzic behind bars.



“The actual legal language [on EU integration] has never [required] Mladic and Hadzic in The Hague; it’s always been full cooperation [with the tribunal]. I don’t think they have demonstrated full cooperation yet. Of course if they do demonstrate that, and somehow it is not possible to get the two fugitives in The Hague, then we’ll have to live with that,” Freizer said.



Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.