Tadić: Kosovo not condition for EU

Tadic is being a little dishonest here since his own buddy, Solana, has stated that the Kosovo issue will be, 'dealt with later'. We all know who Solana is, and you can read between the lines here. However, I am glad Tadic actually stated that if there was a choice between the EU or Kosovo, he would choose Kosovo.
Now Tadic, stop listening to your western advisors and please rescind your recognition of FYROM under the name 'Macedonia'. Macedonians are Greeks. FYROM recognized the fake/illegal/immoral state of Kosovo, so what are you waiting for? You are slapping Greece in the face by not doing this, they are a great ally and have not recognized Kosovo, but FYROM has. I really don't understand what there is to gain here by that foolish policy, unless you are trying to sabotage Serbia's friendship with Greece. Stop listening to Munter!

Zvonko,
I find your words very offensive. I realize that you love Tito, but Tito was Serbia's biggest enemy and did more damage to Serbia than even the Germans did. I beg to differ with you, and the only 'idiots' are actually those Serbs that supported Tito's anti-Serb policies during his long rule. Thank God those days are over, and thank God our relationship with Russia has been restored as it should be.

Mircea,
I really don't get why you are so interested in Serbia joining the EU? Are you a paid lobbyist for them? You don't have a horse in this race.

As for your prediction for the football match, I will take that bet! This new generation of Serbian footballers is quite impressive, and the future looks bright.
Oh yes, and Go Nole, Jelena, Ana, Janko, Nenad and Viktor!!
Ziveli!!

No,no... Nikola Tesla is barrier to EU entry.

Ohhh come on Mr. Tadic. Try to be at least once honest before your people, the people that voted you in office. Tell them plain and simple: K O S O V O I S L O S T F O R E V E R, becuse I T I S I N D E P E N D E N T from Serbia, and as such is recognised by the powerful world.

Come on lets not get too excited about this.

Tadic's statements are entirely in line with the Serbian position on Kosovo and it is totally expected that he would make such a statement.

Mircea, are you an employee of the EU?
But to address your points - you are measuring Serbs with regional governments - not consistent.

The Serbian government wants to join the EU as other countries' governments you listed.

As for the people of those countries, Croatia has seen a marked rise in euro-sceptism recently and Serbia (whether it is good or not) has plenty more people enthusiastic about the EU than Croatia.

But factually you are right about no serious alternative to EU, in the sense that no other trading block exists that might benefit Serbia as much. But there is an alternative - as there always is, Serbia could choose to stay out of the EU.

As for the Romanian football team, to be honest with you neither Romania or Serbia are going to be winning any tournaments and 'we are going to beat' you smells a little too much to me of provincialism of those who can't beat more highly placed teams. Thats why even as a supporter of Serbia I'm not excited about the match. Serbian football is despressing these days, although the return of Radomir Antic gives some optimism.

PRN: "K O S O V O I S L O S T F O R E V E R I T I S I N D E P E N D E N T"

That's one heck of a wordsearch!! (or has it now been rebranded?)!

I got veriti and dependent...

for the Serbs:

I think that those Serbs who are against EU membership should be aware of the fact that all other countries in the Western Balkans want to join the EU.

1. Croatia- EU candidate state
2. Macedonia- EU candidate state
3. Montenegro- submitted its application for EU membership
4. Albania- will probably submit its EU membership application this year

Bosnia and Kosovo are also interested in joining the EU.

I think there is no alternative to the EU for the countries of the Western Balkans.

PS: The Romanian football team will beat Serbia on 28 March.

Zvonko,
I know very well what the Germans did, and am very proud to say that both my grandparents fought bravely against them. The Germans came to a land that is not theirs, and commited horrendous attrocities, as they always tend to do. And of course albanians, croats, bosnian muslims and hungarians helped them along.

Now look at what Tito did and what his lasting legacy is: He gave Kosovo a ridiculous amount of autonomy (which no other minority in the world had), did not allow many Serbs to return to their homes there, opened the gates and allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to flood over from albania, he gave Vojvodina autonomy, he never gave Krajina the same autonomy even though the Serbs there suffered genocide, he rewarded the Croats' genocide by giving them Istria (which was over the backs of Serbs), he made Bosnian muslims a 'nation' when in fact they are just converted muslim Serbs, he gave the people of Skopje the name 'Macedonia' even though Macedonians are Greeks, he moved most industry to Slovenia and gave them cheap raw materials from Serbia....
It goes on and on, but he had a policy of weakening Serbia as much as possible and strengthening the other republics. Every war in the former Yugoslavia in the 90's can be traced to what Tito has done, from Krajina, to Bosnia, to Kosovo...it all could have been prevented 50 years ago had that dictator been removed from power. The very situation in Kosovo today is a result of Tito's policies, and that is the cradle of Serbian civilization, which he tried to destroy.

bganon,
Your comment is so ridiculous and so insulting to me and my relatives that it is not even worth a response from me.

Mircea,
Serbia does not have to join the EU, and will not join if ridiculous conditions are put on her, like recognizing a fake/illegal/immoral NATO state on her soil. Just because you are not in the EU does not mean you can not trade with them. We will be free and independent, unlike all of our neighbours.
Cheers!!

>>"Tadić said that the Kosovo Serbs were rightly concerned by the planned formation of the Kosovo security forces, which was why he would insist on their dissolution."

And 95% of the population is concerned about not having it. Why is this guy wasting so much energy on what happens in another country, something he can't control? If Kosova was Serbia, he would have stopped the Albanian forces creation long time ago. Saying 5% of the population doesn't want something so stop it, it's not the way to go Tadic.

All the countries that tasted russian rule never want to do so again and have either joined the EU or desperately want to. Serbia/YU on the other hand was never under russian rule but now the country is full of violent idiots who somehow desire strong union with russia! The same fools also believe that keeping the illusion that Kosovo could be regained is worth more than joining the EU. I fully support Tadic and he is no fool. He says what he has to say to keep those same violent fools calm.

RE: EU Membership

It seems to be that Romania and Bulgaria were hit much harder by the recent Russia/Ukraine Gas dispute.

In fact, both Romania and Bulgaria are barely ahead of Serbia in terms of economic progress and properity as measured by GNP per Capita, unemployment and internatoinal trade. This is after billions of dollar's of damage to Serbia's economy due to civil strife and the Kosovo war.

Serbia is far better off pursuing a dual economic policy of continuing to strengthen relations with EU while also increasing political and economic ties with Russia, Belarus and all former Soviet Union republics.

Dragan

I don't know where you got the idea from that I love Tito. I never said or implied that. In fact I hate his legacy. I made the point that even though Tito was a communist he had at least the intelligence to keep Yugoslavia independent and not allow it to become another Russian satellite. I agree with you that he did a great deal of harm to Serbia's interests. I disagree strongly that he damaged us more than the Germans during WWII - just go to the mass graves of Serbian school children in Kragujevac for a reminder of what the Germans did to us.

Zvonko

Who are you trying to fool with these weekly press re-assurances Mr. Tadic?

Not for anything but you're kinda starting to sound like Montenegro in the final weeks before it's recognition.

"As far as I’m concerned, no-one in Europe has ever hinted at recognition of Kosovo being a condition for EU integration."

Gospodin Tadic, who are you kidding??? Nearly EVERYONE within the EU is linking future EU acension to Serbia's eventual recognition of Kosovo. So how can you blatantly say such a statement that "no one has ever hinted....". Absolutely ridiculous for a President to utter such nonsense- you know as well as anyone of the linkage between the two conditions- it's in the media reports everyday. So why are you trying to hide facts and fool your electorate??? Probably just so that your Western puppetmasters don't remove you from the Presidency. Lies and propoganda are why Serbia is being torn from within, and having to endure such turmoil can be directly related to the truthfulness of the government. Tadic...please be truthful with your people and try to solve Serbia's many problems from the intelligent and hard working people that want a better Serbia- not from foreigners who have their own hidden agendas.

of course it will be a condition, at least from the cloud-nr.-7-states that fantasize about an independence of serbias southern province.

just like the eu-states that follow law and live in a.)reality and b.) on this planet will stop kosovo from entering international bodies (or albania, or bosnia).

and - not to forget - good politics from serbias foreign office (in the case of laying croatias entering on ice by slovenia and italy) will stop the entering train on the balkans as a whole, serbia won´t miss anything.

until new and real negotiations about kosovos future autonomy restart, there is no eu-future of the western balkans.

the timeline is also fixed, this won´t be a saga like the liberation of taiwan, til 2013 the eu-backed pipeline through serbia is finished, til 2015 russias south-stream.

at least then brussels will decide about reading an atlas correctly or the south-stream-leverage on russia will give russian security guarantees for cleaning up the own house.

pretty easy, pretty clear, pretty nothing to do with tadic and everything to do with kostunica.

Well judging from recent history, the demilitarization of Serbia and not the other way around would have prevented a lot of bloodshed in the Balkans. Perhaps Tadic has a point when he says that the area should be demilitarized, but geographically he is off by a bit.

who cares what a puppet on a lonely string :) has to say.

now for something more interesting. mircea :) i used to think that "mircea" is some eu spam robot, but now i find that he is a human being, romanian at that and that he follows football. so i like you well mircea. wish your team and ours a good game.

Zvonko, Mircea, Dragan,

Tito in the Serbian views was an "enemy" but it was only during his rule that Yugoslavia as a whole progressed and was quite very strong.

Joining the EU for all Balkans is the wrong choices. The best alternative is the Balkan Union then Mediterranean Union. The EU will import your labor, never will you be an equal to a Frenchmen or a British person. NEVER!!

I don't agree on this one with mr. tadic. While K recognition is not going to be a condition black on white, most probably a sort of silent recognition will be sought by some old EU members during the process.

@Mircea
Are you still on Christmas wine?
As for the football thing, don't you know that we lost home 3-0 to Lithuania (?!) and that we practically don't have a football team at the moment. My prognosis is that Serbia wins 4 points at least.
Try women gymnastics.

Luigi yes I am sure that most Serbian citizens support entry to the EU. Too many opinion polls have been conducted for the opposite to be true and remember the whole ticket of the winning DS block campaign was on Europe.

Those in Serbia that are sceptical of Europe will mostly agree, but they will also say that a proper debate has not been conducted - and they are right. But, and this is a big but eurosceptics in Serbia have not mounted a serious critique of the EU. The debate has hardly gone outside of EU vs Russia, which do you prefer. What the Russian leaning block has to understand is that they may be able to get a majority against the EU if they use serious arguments of the kind eurosceptics use within EU countries. So yes there has not been a debate, but no it actually isn't the fault of the pro-Europeans, its not their job to persuade people of the drawbacks to EU membership.

Croatia as you know has had a number of slaps in the face from the EU particularly through Slovenia. They may yet have to suffer the 'indignity' of joining the EU along with Serbia in 7-8 years time, along with the rest.

Mircea I doubt many will come but may the best team win... I was at a recent Red Star Partizan match, the standard used to be much higher...

Dragan you can't be serious in saying that the nazis did less damage to Serbia than Tito did. Its almost as if you are implying that you supported collaboration with the Germans in WW2 as the ustasa did.

Logic the fact is that everybody in former Jugoslavija lived better under Tito. Relatively speaking no former Jug countries will ever live as good again with possible exception of Slovenia. Its a bitter pill to swallow (that we prospered the most in Jugoslavija) for some but its the truth.

It is quite possible to be politically against the Tito era and to concede that he had much success on some levels. My family were against the communists who stole land from us, but I'm quite capable of seeing both sides of the story.

Tito isn't as unpopular as you might think in the former Jug, as you probably know he is still worshiped in Bosnia and to a lesser extent in Macedonia.

for bganon:

Regarding the football match Romania-Serbia, I think the supporters of Serbia should not bother to come to Constanta since Serbia will lose the game anyway. Serbs need a visa to come to Romania so probably not many will attend the match.

for Dragan:

What alternative does Serbia have if she does not join the EU?

If Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkan countries do not join the EU they will have no future!

Long live the European Union!

Greece has no chance against Turkey if it was to fight a bi-lateral war, but nevertheless there is a Greek army and conscription. The same could be said about Albania and Greece, or Macedonia and Albania or Montenegro and Macedonia etc. etc. Each sovereign country is entitled to have its army/security forces. The actual purpose of these troops varies from country to country. The most important implication is that only sovereign countries are entitled to have an army and this is what matters for Kosova. As a sovereign country, Kosova has its own army, and it's entitled to protect itself from any aggression, which may likely come from the north. But at the end of the day it’s NATO that has a grip on Serbia, Kosova, and the rest of Europe. It’s simply delusional and infantile for some to claim that as soon as US drops Kosova from its top priorities (which it hasn’t been anyway for at least a decade), or when NATO leaves Serbia’s chances to get Kosova back will increase.
(miri, 20 January 2009, 16:21)

You need to research your answer much better, Greece has one of the largest modern armies in the Balkans and for that matter in Europe. The reason for this is the impending threat from Turkey.

The Greek navy is far superior and its for this reason that Turkey has turned down it rhetoric over Cyprus and other attempts to seize Greek islands.

FYROM, Albania and Montenegro have some security forces, minimal armies and high reliance on NATO. The so called Kosovo security forces will be governed under EULEX, nothing less, nothing more.

@bganon
Are you sure about your compatriot been so loving of Eu?
reading comments and article here it seems to me Serbs are fond of a mytical Super slavic state headed by Russians and with them as their first knight...
A friend of mine who works often in your country has always told me that Serbians that are in favour of Eu are a minority and usually have an optimistic view about practical improvment of their life after the "possible" Big Bang...
Anyway it's true that euroskepticsm from Croatia is a big problem for the country accession to Eu infact also for Euro-based opinions poll the yes rating is continuosly under the so-called minimum barrier of 40%....

oh come on what a fuss for nothing, serbia's trying to defend its national integrity and good it does it, anyway what a goal gave jankovic last sunday in lecce, and bloody jovetic is indeed a very interesting player (ok he is montenegrin but i bet he misses belgrade more then podgorica) ciao big hug for serbians

please konstantin, don´t post nonsense.

greece has the strongest army after israel in that region.

it would break turkey within hours, you can´t sell old german tanks to greece like to turkey.

a neighbour and therefore a military budget like that made greece move into eu.

or how & why do you think got a civilized country like greece member of eu ??

because it´s cool to be us-province ???

or empty promisses of money that never was and will be paid, like for romania and bulgaria?

RE:

IMF Economic Report-Serbia and Romania

Country Subject Descriptor Units Scale Country/Series-specific Notes 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Estimates Start After

Romania Gross domestic product, constant prices Annual percent change See notes for: Gross domestic product, constant prices (National currency). 7.855 6.042 8.6 4.8 5.3 5.672 5.755 6.016 2007


Serbia Gross domestic product, constant prices Annual percent change See notes for: Gross domestic product, constant prices (National currency). 5.553 7.087 6 6 6.5 6.5 6 5.5 2007

Growth rates in both Romania and Serbia are strong.

please konstantin, don´t post nonsense.

greece has the strongest army after israel in that region.

it would break turkey within hours, you can´t sell old german tanks to greece like to turkey.

a neighbour and therefore a military budget like that made greece move into eu.

or how & why do you think got a civilized country like greece member of eu ??

because it´s cool to be us-province ???

or empty promisses of money that never was and will be paid, like for romania and bulgaria?
(raso, 20 January 2009 21:23)

Raso,

Read my post more carefully, Greece is more than capable of defending itself , but bear in mind both Turkey and Greece are members of NATO.

for Konstantin Gregovic:

Romania was not seriously affected during the Russia/Ukraine gas dispute because Romania has its own resources. Romania does not depend only on Russian gas.

The countries that were most affected were Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Slovakia.

According to the economic forecasts published by the European Commission on 19 January 2009, Romania is the country which recorded the highest economic growth (7.8%) in the European Union.

No,no... Nikola Tesla is barrier to EU entry.

Ohhh come on Mr. Tadic. Try to be at least once honest before your people, the people that voted you in office. Tell them plain and simple: K O S O V O I S L O S T F O R E V E R, becuse I T I S I N D E P E N D E N T from Serbia, and as such is recognised by the powerful world.

for the Serbs:

I think that those Serbs who are against EU membership should be aware of the fact that all other countries in the Western Balkans want to join the EU.

1. Croatia- EU candidate state
2. Macedonia- EU candidate state
3. Montenegro- submitted its application for EU membership
4. Albania- will probably submit its EU membership application this year

Bosnia and Kosovo are also interested in joining the EU.

I think there is no alternative to the EU for the countries of the Western Balkans.

PS: The Romanian football team will beat Serbia on 28 March.

>>"Tadić said that the Kosovo Serbs were rightly concerned by the planned formation of the Kosovo security forces, which was why he would insist on their dissolution."

And 95% of the population is concerned about not having it. Why is this guy wasting so much energy on what happens in another country, something he can't control? If Kosova was Serbia, he would have stopped the Albanian forces creation long time ago. Saying 5% of the population doesn't want something so stop it, it's not the way to go Tadic.

All the countries that tasted russian rule never want to do so again and have either joined the EU or desperately want to. Serbia/YU on the other hand was never under russian rule but now the country is full of violent idiots who somehow desire strong union with russia! The same fools also believe that keeping the illusion that Kosovo could be regained is worth more than joining the EU. I fully support Tadic and he is no fool. He says what he has to say to keep those same violent fools calm.

Who are you trying to fool with these weekly press re-assurances Mr. Tadic?

Not for anything but you're kinda starting to sound like Montenegro in the final weeks before it's recognition.

for Dragan:

What alternative does Serbia have if she does not join the EU?

If Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkan countries do not join the EU they will have no future!

Long live the European Union!

"As far as I’m concerned, no-one in Europe has ever hinted at recognition of Kosovo being a condition for EU integration."

Gospodin Tadic, who are you kidding??? Nearly EVERYONE within the EU is linking future EU acension to Serbia's eventual recognition of Kosovo. So how can you blatantly say such a statement that "no one has ever hinted....". Absolutely ridiculous for a President to utter such nonsense- you know as well as anyone of the linkage between the two conditions- it's in the media reports everyday. So why are you trying to hide facts and fool your electorate??? Probably just so that your Western puppetmasters don't remove you from the Presidency. Lies and propoganda are why Serbia is being torn from within, and having to endure such turmoil can be directly related to the truthfulness of the government. Tadic...please be truthful with your people and try to solve Serbia's many problems from the intelligent and hard working people that want a better Serbia- not from foreigners who have their own hidden agendas.

Tadic is being a little dishonest here since his own buddy, Solana, has stated that the Kosovo issue will be, 'dealt with later'. We all know who Solana is, and you can read between the lines here. However, I am glad Tadic actually stated that if there was a choice between the EU or Kosovo, he would choose Kosovo.
Now Tadic, stop listening to your western advisors and please rescind your recognition of FYROM under the name 'Macedonia'. Macedonians are Greeks. FYROM recognized the fake/illegal/immoral state of Kosovo, so what are you waiting for? You are slapping Greece in the face by not doing this, they are a great ally and have not recognized Kosovo, but FYROM has. I really don't understand what there is to gain here by that foolish policy, unless you are trying to sabotage Serbia's friendship with Greece. Stop listening to Munter!

Zvonko,
I find your words very offensive. I realize that you love Tito, but Tito was Serbia's biggest enemy and did more damage to Serbia than even the Germans did. I beg to differ with you, and the only 'idiots' are actually those Serbs that supported Tito's anti-Serb policies during his long rule. Thank God those days are over, and thank God our relationship with Russia has been restored as it should be.

Mircea,
I really don't get why you are so interested in Serbia joining the EU? Are you a paid lobbyist for them? You don't have a horse in this race.

As for your prediction for the football match, I will take that bet! This new generation of Serbian footballers is quite impressive, and the future looks bright.
Oh yes, and Go Nole, Jelena, Ana, Janko, Nenad and Viktor!!
Ziveli!!

of course it will be a condition, at least from the cloud-nr.-7-states that fantasize about an independence of serbias southern province.

just like the eu-states that follow law and live in a.)reality and b.) on this planet will stop kosovo from entering international bodies (or albania, or bosnia).

and - not to forget - good politics from serbias foreign office (in the case of laying croatias entering on ice by slovenia and italy) will stop the entering train on the balkans as a whole, serbia won´t miss anything.

until new and real negotiations about kosovos future autonomy restart, there is no eu-future of the western balkans.

the timeline is also fixed, this won´t be a saga like the liberation of taiwan, til 2013 the eu-backed pipeline through serbia is finished, til 2015 russias south-stream.

at least then brussels will decide about reading an atlas correctly or the south-stream-leverage on russia will give russian security guarantees for cleaning up the own house.

pretty easy, pretty clear, pretty nothing to do with tadic and everything to do with kostunica.

Well judging from recent history, the demilitarization of Serbia and not the other way around would have prevented a lot of bloodshed in the Balkans. Perhaps Tadic has a point when he says that the area should be demilitarized, but geographically he is off by a bit.

for bganon:

Regarding the football match Romania-Serbia, I think the supporters of Serbia should not bother to come to Constanta since Serbia will lose the game anyway. Serbs need a visa to come to Romania so probably not many will attend the match.

PRN: "K O S O V O I S L O S T F O R E V E R I T I S I N D E P E N D E N T"

That's one heck of a wordsearch!! (or has it now been rebranded?)!

I got veriti and dependent...

Dragan

I don't know where you got the idea from that I love Tito. I never said or implied that. In fact I hate his legacy. I made the point that even though Tito was a communist he had at least the intelligence to keep Yugoslavia independent and not allow it to become another Russian satellite. I agree with you that he did a great deal of harm to Serbia's interests. I disagree strongly that he damaged us more than the Germans during WWII - just go to the mass graves of Serbian school children in Kragujevac for a reminder of what the Germans did to us.

Zvonko

@bganon
Are you sure about your compatriot been so loving of Eu?
reading comments and article here it seems to me Serbs are fond of a mytical Super slavic state headed by Russians and with them as their first knight...
A friend of mine who works often in your country has always told me that Serbians that are in favour of Eu are a minority and usually have an optimistic view about practical improvment of their life after the "possible" Big Bang...
Anyway it's true that euroskepticsm from Croatia is a big problem for the country accession to Eu infact also for Euro-based opinions poll the yes rating is continuosly under the so-called minimum barrier of 40%....

Luigi yes I am sure that most Serbian citizens support entry to the EU. Too many opinion polls have been conducted for the opposite to be true and remember the whole ticket of the winning DS block campaign was on Europe.

Those in Serbia that are sceptical of Europe will mostly agree, but they will also say that a proper debate has not been conducted - and they are right. But, and this is a big but eurosceptics in Serbia have not mounted a serious critique of the EU. The debate has hardly gone outside of EU vs Russia, which do you prefer. What the Russian leaning block has to understand is that they may be able to get a majority against the EU if they use serious arguments of the kind eurosceptics use within EU countries. So yes there has not been a debate, but no it actually isn't the fault of the pro-Europeans, its not their job to persuade people of the drawbacks to EU membership.

Croatia as you know has had a number of slaps in the face from the EU particularly through Slovenia. They may yet have to suffer the 'indignity' of joining the EU along with Serbia in 7-8 years time, along with the rest.

Mircea I doubt many will come but may the best team win... I was at a recent Red Star Partizan match, the standard used to be much higher...

Dragan you can't be serious in saying that the nazis did less damage to Serbia than Tito did. Its almost as if you are implying that you supported collaboration with the Germans in WW2 as the ustasa did.

Logic the fact is that everybody in former Jugoslavija lived better under Tito. Relatively speaking no former Jug countries will ever live as good again with possible exception of Slovenia. Its a bitter pill to swallow (that we prospered the most in Jugoslavija) for some but its the truth.

It is quite possible to be politically against the Tito era and to concede that he had much success on some levels. My family were against the communists who stole land from us, but I'm quite capable of seeing both sides of the story.

Tito isn't as unpopular as you might think in the former Jug, as you probably know he is still worshiped in Bosnia and to a lesser extent in Macedonia.

Come on lets not get too excited about this.

Tadic's statements are entirely in line with the Serbian position on Kosovo and it is totally expected that he would make such a statement.

Mircea, are you an employee of the EU?
But to address your points - you are measuring Serbs with regional governments - not consistent.

The Serbian government wants to join the EU as other countries' governments you listed.

As for the people of those countries, Croatia has seen a marked rise in euro-sceptism recently and Serbia (whether it is good or not) has plenty more people enthusiastic about the EU than Croatia.

But factually you are right about no serious alternative to EU, in the sense that no other trading block exists that might benefit Serbia as much. But there is an alternative - as there always is, Serbia could choose to stay out of the EU.

As for the Romanian football team, to be honest with you neither Romania or Serbia are going to be winning any tournaments and 'we are going to beat' you smells a little too much to me of provincialism of those who can't beat more highly placed teams. Thats why even as a supporter of Serbia I'm not excited about the match. Serbian football is despressing these days, although the return of Radomir Antic gives some optimism.

RE: EU Membership

It seems to be that Romania and Bulgaria were hit much harder by the recent Russia/Ukraine Gas dispute.

In fact, both Romania and Bulgaria are barely ahead of Serbia in terms of economic progress and properity as measured by GNP per Capita, unemployment and internatoinal trade. This is after billions of dollar's of damage to Serbia's economy due to civil strife and the Kosovo war.

Serbia is far better off pursuing a dual economic policy of continuing to strengthen relations with EU while also increasing political and economic ties with Russia, Belarus and all former Soviet Union republics.

for Konstantin Gregovic:

Romania was not seriously affected during the Russia/Ukraine gas dispute because Romania has its own resources. Romania does not depend only on Russian gas.

The countries that were most affected were Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Slovakia.

According to the economic forecasts published by the European Commission on 19 January 2009, Romania is the country which recorded the highest economic growth (7.8%) in the European Union.

I don't agree on this one with mr. tadic. While K recognition is not going to be a condition black on white, most probably a sort of silent recognition will be sought by some old EU members during the process.

@Mircea
Are you still on Christmas wine?
As for the football thing, don't you know that we lost home 3-0 to Lithuania (?!) and that we practically don't have a football team at the moment. My prognosis is that Serbia wins 4 points at least.
Try women gymnastics.

Greece has no chance against Turkey if it was to fight a bi-lateral war, but nevertheless there is a Greek army and conscription. The same could be said about Albania and Greece, or Macedonia and Albania or Montenegro and Macedonia etc. etc. Each sovereign country is entitled to have its army/security forces. The actual purpose of these troops varies from country to country. The most important implication is that only sovereign countries are entitled to have an army and this is what matters for Kosova. As a sovereign country, Kosova has its own army, and it's entitled to protect itself from any aggression, which may likely come from the north. But at the end of the day it’s NATO that has a grip on Serbia, Kosova, and the rest of Europe. It’s simply delusional and infantile for some to claim that as soon as US drops Kosova from its top priorities (which it hasn’t been anyway for at least a decade), or when NATO leaves Serbia’s chances to get Kosova back will increase.
(miri, 20 January 2009, 16:21)

You need to research your answer much better, Greece has one of the largest modern armies in the Balkans and for that matter in Europe. The reason for this is the impending threat from Turkey.

The Greek navy is far superior and its for this reason that Turkey has turned down it rhetoric over Cyprus and other attempts to seize Greek islands.

FYROM, Albania and Montenegro have some security forces, minimal armies and high reliance on NATO. The so called Kosovo security forces will be governed under EULEX, nothing less, nothing more.

Zvonko,
I know very well what the Germans did, and am very proud to say that both my grandparents fought bravely against them. The Germans came to a land that is not theirs, and commited horrendous attrocities, as they always tend to do. And of course albanians, croats, bosnian muslims and hungarians helped them along.

Now look at what Tito did and what his lasting legacy is: He gave Kosovo a ridiculous amount of autonomy (which no other minority in the world had), did not allow many Serbs to return to their homes there, opened the gates and allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to flood over from albania, he gave Vojvodina autonomy, he never gave Krajina the same autonomy even though the Serbs there suffered genocide, he rewarded the Croats' genocide by giving them Istria (which was over the backs of Serbs), he made Bosnian muslims a 'nation' when in fact they are just converted muslim Serbs, he gave the people of Skopje the name 'Macedonia' even though Macedonians are Greeks, he moved most industry to Slovenia and gave them cheap raw materials from Serbia....
It goes on and on, but he had a policy of weakening Serbia as much as possible and strengthening the other republics. Every war in the former Yugoslavia in the 90's can be traced to what Tito has done, from Krajina, to Bosnia, to Kosovo...it all could have been prevented 50 years ago had that dictator been removed from power. The very situation in Kosovo today is a result of Tito's policies, and that is the cradle of Serbian civilization, which he tried to destroy.

bganon,
Your comment is so ridiculous and so insulting to me and my relatives that it is not even worth a response from me.

Mircea,
Serbia does not have to join the EU, and will not join if ridiculous conditions are put on her, like recognizing a fake/illegal/immoral NATO state on her soil. Just because you are not in the EU does not mean you can not trade with them. We will be free and independent, unlike all of our neighbours.
Cheers!!

Zvonko, Mircea, Dragan,

Tito in the Serbian views was an "enemy" but it was only during his rule that Yugoslavia as a whole progressed and was quite very strong.

Joining the EU for all Balkans is the wrong choices. The best alternative is the Balkan Union then Mediterranean Union. The EU will import your labor, never will you be an equal to a Frenchmen or a British person. NEVER!!

who cares what a puppet on a lonely string :) has to say.

now for something more interesting. mircea :) i used to think that "mircea" is some eu spam robot, but now i find that he is a human being, romanian at that and that he follows football. so i like you well mircea. wish your team and ours a good game.

please konstantin, don´t post nonsense.

greece has the strongest army after israel in that region.

it would break turkey within hours, you can´t sell old german tanks to greece like to turkey.

a neighbour and therefore a military budget like that made greece move into eu.

or how & why do you think got a civilized country like greece member of eu ??

because it´s cool to be us-province ???

or empty promisses of money that never was and will be paid, like for romania and bulgaria?

please konstantin, don´t post nonsense.

greece has the strongest army after israel in that region.

it would break turkey within hours, you can´t sell old german tanks to greece like to turkey.

a neighbour and therefore a military budget like that made greece move into eu.

or how & why do you think got a civilized country like greece member of eu ??

because it´s cool to be us-province ???

or empty promisses of money that never was and will be paid, like for romania and bulgaria?
(raso, 20 January 2009 21:23)

Raso,

Read my post more carefully, Greece is more than capable of defending itself , but bear in mind both Turkey and Greece are members of NATO.

oh come on what a fuss for nothing, serbia's trying to defend its national integrity and good it does it, anyway what a goal gave jankovic last sunday in lecce, and bloody jovetic is indeed a very interesting player (ok he is montenegrin but i bet he misses belgrade more then podgorica) ciao big hug for serbians

RE:

IMF Economic Report-Serbia and Romania

Country Subject Descriptor Units Scale Country/Series-specific Notes 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Estimates Start After

Romania Gross domestic product, constant prices Annual percent change See notes for: Gross domestic product, constant prices (National currency). 7.855 6.042 8.6 4.8 5.3 5.672 5.755 6.016 2007


Serbia Gross domestic product, constant prices Annual percent change See notes for: Gross domestic product, constant prices (National currency). 5.553 7.087 6 6 6.5 6.5 6 5.5 2007

Growth rates in both Romania and Serbia are strong.