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Serbia warned as Brussels starts talks on EU links
By Eric Jansson in Belgrade
Published: October 11 2005 03:00 Financial Times

Olli Rehn, the European Union's enlargement commissioner, yesterday warned Serbia-Montenegro it would be closely watched as he launched the country's negotiations to bring it closer to the EU.

Mr Rehn's warnings focused on two important challenges: the EU's requirement that Serbia arrest and extradite senior Serb war crimes indictees, and a possible referendum on Montenegrin independence, which could be held next year.

Failure by Serbia to continue co-operating with the United Nations' war crimes tribunal in The Hague would result in suspension of the talks that began yesterday, Mr Rehn said. The goal of the negotiations - a "stabilisation and assocation agreement" - is widely seen as a way station to full EU membership.

Mr Rehn also said the EU would watch closely to see if Montenegro's leaders "abide by international standards" as they proceed as early as next spring with a referendum on independence from Serbia. A Yes vote would make Montenegro a new sovereign state in the Balkans and trigger the collapse of Serbia-Montenegro, the union created at the EU's urging on the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 2003.

The EU's decision to proceed with negotiations stems partly from the fear that otherwise Serbia could become unstable if Montenegro left it at the same time as the province of Kosovo moved towards independence.

Montenegro's independence movement has gathered steam whenever Serbia's diplomatic progress has been halted by failures in Belgrade to apprehend war crimes indictees.

The EU has been criticised by some diplomats for starting talks while the two most senior Serb war crime suspects - Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic - remain at large. But EU officials say Serbia's example has already pushed neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina to move towards a landmark police reform that is a key condition of starting its own talks with the EU.

Mr Rehn exchanged toasts with Serbian and Montenegrin leaders at the Serbia-Montenegro president's Palace of the Federation. "After quite a long night, this is a new dawn for the western Balkans, and it is a European dawn," he said, bringing a smile to the face of Svetozar Marovic, the president.

But a senior Montenegrin government official said the European Commission could hold Montenegro to "too demanding" a standard in order to hold Serbia-Montenegro together. Additional reporting by Daniel Dombey in Brussels

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