"Candidate status for all Balkan states"

I wonder who is this force aimed at ? They lie that NATO's main target is terrorism for the terrorists have no aircrafts , no tanks , no submarines , no infantry ect. China is too far from Europe so evidently the main goal is Russia ...

But if so why the hell Balkans have to join NATO ? Maybe they need to put their heads under the back strike of the Russian missiles with some of them carrying 50-100 megatonn charges ? What contradiction do the Balkans have with Russia to take such risks ?

@Peter Sudyka

Macedonia already has the candidate status
Albania and Montenegro has already signed the SAA last year

only Serbia , Kosovo and Bosnia has no signed the SAA

There was a time when "Candidate status" was a serious thing..
Now if Mr.Busek is right will be a ridicolous circus !!
Thank you for destroing the idea of Europe...

You can't just give candidate status for all the Balkan states, the EU functions in such a way that it requires all its members to have a set standard of economical development in order to take on board the EU's policies, you can't just take charity cases in that will only be a burden to the EU, rather than any kind of member of the EU.

As things stand now, taking into account the statistics, Serbia is the only country that would be able to receive candidate status out of the Balkan countries who are not members or candidates already. Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina are simply not ready to become candidates.

The Copenhagen Criteria (those that need to be fulfilled in order for countries to be considered) state:

"Membership requires that candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and, protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union."

The last two in particular are something these remaining Balkan states have to work hard on (functioning market economy and capacity to cope with competitive pressure), otherwise the EU will stand to benefit nothing in taking these countries in any way. While I think Serbia has these last two under its belt, it does not have stability of institutions at the moment, let's see what the elections will bring in May.

Also one last thing, Serbia cannot be considered earlier for membership until the Kosovo issue has been solved, otherwise the work the EU has put into Kosovo will go straight to hell, so I am of the impression that the remaining Balkan states will become members anywhere from 10-20 years time, when all of them are ready for it.

Dear Peter,

technically you are right, there are certain hoops to jump through to join the club.

Reality, though, is somewhat different. Both Bulgaria and Romania were allowed to join the EU despite significantly failing to fulfil the Jusitice and Home Affairs (JHA) chapter of the acquis communautaire - hence the on going threats by the EU to sanction Bulgaria (and less so Romania) over corruption and organized crime.

The EU is an political institution. If you are a 'friend' who can be bullied, then you get special treatment. SAA's and other 'agreements' all come with 'extra' demands that are not included in any text. So the EU can make it as easy or as difficult as they like.

Personally, I don't see why Serbia should become a member of the EU. The hold a geographic, commerical and politically strategic position in the balkans which gives them distinct leverage against the EU, much more so than their neighbors.

If the EU sees fit to continue to punish Serbia and the Serbs, it cannot claim to be acting in a manner that is suitable to the stabilization of the Balkans, so good bye 'stability pact'.

They still refuse to admit that sanctions against the FRY throughout the 1990s not only gave organized crime significant opportunities in Serbia, it did the same for neighboring states and punished the whole peoples of the Balkans without discrimination.

Still, considering all the talented EU politicians that bleat expertly about what 'should be done in the Balkans', I son't for a minute believe that they have lost their skills for making the most disasterous politicial decisions possible. After all, they do have a long history of them.

"candidate countries: Macedonia,Croatia and Turkey"

a fat load of good that does them :)
it's a farce, people. election ploy. like that interim something.. i remember reading eu bureaucrats saying after the elections, it only served the purpose to get tadic reelected. and they want to pull the same fast one on us in the space of two months? wow.
now, tadic can even sign saa, it will never be ratified. i'm in serbia, people are making jokes about it. directly it will have no influence on the elections, sign or not.
the only value it has for solana and tadic is that it distracts people from the real issues. but, kostunica is doing really well, he's running this race wisely, now he puts kosovo into the saa :) so every time they talk about saa, they have to talk about kosovo too :))
and OH, HOW they'd love to separate these too for the purpose of brainwashing..

Peter, Macedonia is a CANDIDATE COUNTRY. Enter the site www.europa.eu and read about the candidate countries: Macedonia,Croatia and Turkey. Read more before writing your comments.

All Western Balkans will be on candidate status in 2009, starting membership negotiations in 2010 and projected full membership in 2015. All countries (with the exception of Croatia joining in 2010) will be accepted together.
Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Union
2015....that's seven more years!
So whatever the politicians tell you, this is the timeframe set by EU.
All Western Balkans countries would be stripped of the right to block accession of another Western Balkan country. For example, Albania if accepted before Serbia it cannot block Serbia's accession because is not recognizing Kosovo. Or even Serbia it cannot block Kosovo's accession.
The term "national sovereignity" is lost once a country join EU.

dan and Mircea

Right you are, I don't know why I included Macedonia in that list, I wasn't thinking.

Aleks

I agree that Serbia has no need for the EU, the reality is that Serbia has existed for a long time and it always did fine, there are plenty of European countries that are not in the EU. Life goes on, I personally also don't see the EU as such a great thing as people here seem to think it is (the Albanians in particular worship the EU for some reason), so Serbia should continue down its own path if it wants to, of course by this I mean the people (it most certainly doesn't mean if a country joins the EU that suddenly everything will be better, my country has been in the EU since 2004 and I can't say things have rocketed around here at all).

I think it would be a good thing for you guys to join the EU. However, not being in the EU is not the end of the world - look at Switzerland and Norway, they are both doing fine. I think the issue here is the EU policy towards Balkan countries (not just Serbia) with the visa regimes and so on. I think also that some high ranking people within it are hostile towards Serbia joining.

But overall the EU in my opinion is a good thing as long as the cooperation goes both ways. It's better to be in the EU when you can influence the decisions of other countries rather than have the organisation impose it's will on you whether you like it or not, at least if you were in the EU (as a lot of Eastern European countries now are) you have more chance of having an influence on their decisions.

That said there's nothing wrong with being a neutral country and not being in the EU and given recent history I would completely understand why many people would not want this to happen.

Peter, Macedonia is a CANDIDATE COUNTRY. Enter the site www.europa.eu and read about the candidate countries: Macedonia,Croatia and Turkey. Read more before writing your comments.

All Western Balkans will be on candidate status in 2009, starting membership negotiations in 2010 and projected full membership in 2015. All countries (with the exception of Croatia joining in 2010) will be accepted together.
Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Union
2015....that's seven more years!
So whatever the politicians tell you, this is the timeframe set by EU.
All Western Balkans countries would be stripped of the right to block accession of another Western Balkan country. For example, Albania if accepted before Serbia it cannot block Serbia's accession because is not recognizing Kosovo. Or even Serbia it cannot block Kosovo's accession.
The term "national sovereignity" is lost once a country join EU.

There was a time when "Candidate status" was a serious thing..
Now if Mr.Busek is right will be a ridicolous circus !!
Thank you for destroing the idea of Europe...

You can't just give candidate status for all the Balkan states, the EU functions in such a way that it requires all its members to have a set standard of economical development in order to take on board the EU's policies, you can't just take charity cases in that will only be a burden to the EU, rather than any kind of member of the EU.

As things stand now, taking into account the statistics, Serbia is the only country that would be able to receive candidate status out of the Balkan countries who are not members or candidates already. Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina are simply not ready to become candidates.

The Copenhagen Criteria (those that need to be fulfilled in order for countries to be considered) state:

"Membership requires that candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and, protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union."

The last two in particular are something these remaining Balkan states have to work hard on (functioning market economy and capacity to cope with competitive pressure), otherwise the EU will stand to benefit nothing in taking these countries in any way. While I think Serbia has these last two under its belt, it does not have stability of institutions at the moment, let's see what the elections will bring in May.

Also one last thing, Serbia cannot be considered earlier for membership until the Kosovo issue has been solved, otherwise the work the EU has put into Kosovo will go straight to hell, so I am of the impression that the remaining Balkan states will become members anywhere from 10-20 years time, when all of them are ready for it.

@Peter Sudyka

Macedonia already has the candidate status
Albania and Montenegro has already signed the SAA last year

only Serbia , Kosovo and Bosnia has no signed the SAA

Dear Peter,

technically you are right, there are certain hoops to jump through to join the club.

Reality, though, is somewhat different. Both Bulgaria and Romania were allowed to join the EU despite significantly failing to fulfil the Jusitice and Home Affairs (JHA) chapter of the acquis communautaire - hence the on going threats by the EU to sanction Bulgaria (and less so Romania) over corruption and organized crime.

The EU is an political institution. If you are a 'friend' who can be bullied, then you get special treatment. SAA's and other 'agreements' all come with 'extra' demands that are not included in any text. So the EU can make it as easy or as difficult as they like.

Personally, I don't see why Serbia should become a member of the EU. The hold a geographic, commerical and politically strategic position in the balkans which gives them distinct leverage against the EU, much more so than their neighbors.

If the EU sees fit to continue to punish Serbia and the Serbs, it cannot claim to be acting in a manner that is suitable to the stabilization of the Balkans, so good bye 'stability pact'.

They still refuse to admit that sanctions against the FRY throughout the 1990s not only gave organized crime significant opportunities in Serbia, it did the same for neighboring states and punished the whole peoples of the Balkans without discrimination.

Still, considering all the talented EU politicians that bleat expertly about what 'should be done in the Balkans', I son't for a minute believe that they have lost their skills for making the most disasterous politicial decisions possible. After all, they do have a long history of them.

"candidate countries: Macedonia,Croatia and Turkey"

a fat load of good that does them :)
it's a farce, people. election ploy. like that interim something.. i remember reading eu bureaucrats saying after the elections, it only served the purpose to get tadic reelected. and they want to pull the same fast one on us in the space of two months? wow.
now, tadic can even sign saa, it will never be ratified. i'm in serbia, people are making jokes about it. directly it will have no influence on the elections, sign or not.
the only value it has for solana and tadic is that it distracts people from the real issues. but, kostunica is doing really well, he's running this race wisely, now he puts kosovo into the saa :) so every time they talk about saa, they have to talk about kosovo too :))
and OH, HOW they'd love to separate these too for the purpose of brainwashing..

I wonder who is this force aimed at ? They lie that NATO's main target is terrorism for the terrorists have no aircrafts , no tanks , no submarines , no infantry ect. China is too far from Europe so evidently the main goal is Russia ...

But if so why the hell Balkans have to join NATO ? Maybe they need to put their heads under the back strike of the Russian missiles with some of them carrying 50-100 megatonn charges ? What contradiction do the Balkans have with Russia to take such risks ?

dan and Mircea

Right you are, I don't know why I included Macedonia in that list, I wasn't thinking.

Aleks

I agree that Serbia has no need for the EU, the reality is that Serbia has existed for a long time and it always did fine, there are plenty of European countries that are not in the EU. Life goes on, I personally also don't see the EU as such a great thing as people here seem to think it is (the Albanians in particular worship the EU for some reason), so Serbia should continue down its own path if it wants to, of course by this I mean the people (it most certainly doesn't mean if a country joins the EU that suddenly everything will be better, my country has been in the EU since 2004 and I can't say things have rocketed around here at all).

I think it would be a good thing for you guys to join the EU. However, not being in the EU is not the end of the world - look at Switzerland and Norway, they are both doing fine. I think the issue here is the EU policy towards Balkan countries (not just Serbia) with the visa regimes and so on. I think also that some high ranking people within it are hostile towards Serbia joining.

But overall the EU in my opinion is a good thing as long as the cooperation goes both ways. It's better to be in the EU when you can influence the decisions of other countries rather than have the organisation impose it's will on you whether you like it or not, at least if you were in the EU (as a lot of Eastern European countries now are) you have more chance of having an influence on their decisions.

That said there's nothing wrong with being a neutral country and not being in the EU and given recent history I would completely understand why many people would not want this to happen.