"Serbia alone can decide on NATO membership"

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

Mr. Scheffer is wrong here.

My country, Ireland, has been an EU member since 1973 but has NEVER been a member of NATO.

Ireland sees no benefit in joining this organisation and is quite happy to stay neutral.

I think, also, that Mr. Sceffer must have very thick skin if he expects Serbia to join an organisation which caused so much havoc, grief and persecution throughout the Balkans since 1989 and to the Serb Nation in particular.

Is it not time for NATO members themselves to conduct a moral inventory of their uncalledfor actions and gross misdeeds and begin to make amends to those they have terrorised?

MB,Ireland

“Also, each of these two organizations has its own instruments for helping countries that wish to join, prepare for membership,” he added.

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

Does everyone see what the NATO war criminals are trying to do here? They are obviously so worried with Serbia's close relationship with Russia that they are insinuating EU membership is linked to NATO membership, knowing that NATO is very unpopular in Serbia after their illegal and barbarian 78 day bombing campaign - which was a blatant war crime.

Tadic, Sutanovac, and the rest of Munter's yellow minion brigade are pulling out all the stops to pull the wool over the Serbian public's eyes. Well, Jap de Hoop, it takes more that lies and propoganda to fool the Serbian public. NATO has become an anti-Serb instrument of German foreign policy (and the KLA terrorist's air force), and the only way to get into the Serb good books is to throw Wesley Clark and Madeline Albright (and Solana's whole gang) in jail for their very obvious war crimes against the Serbian people, clean up the depleted uranium and cluster bombs they have left on Serbian soil, rescind recognition of the fake, illegal, and immoral 'state' of Kosovo by all NATO states, pay back the 60 billion dollars in damage they have done to Serbian infrastructure...and this would be just a start.
Until this is done, NATO is no place for Serbia. Serbia is best free and independent, with very close ties to our true protector Russia - whose actions show that they are our true friend and ally.
Cheers!!

Isn't it amusing how NATO membership is on the agenda now. It is not a surprise really considering the Serbian government was installed by these people. Instead of making it a priority to remove NATO from occupied Serbian soil, they instead propose to join an organisation that has caused severe damage to Serbia and its people.

Could anyone imagine joining the NAZIs after they bombed and occupied Serbia during WWII?

And to the Serbian citizens of Albanian ethnicity here, if Albania or Croatia ever did veto Serbia they would in fact be doing us a great favour but somehow I don't really think their masters would allow such behaviour.

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

This is true. My country, Romania and the other EU members from Central and Eastern Europe first joined NATO and then the EU.

However, there are EU members which are not members of NATO. Austria, Sweden, Finland and Ireland.

There is NO WAY Serbia can join nato after the crimes they have committed on Serbia and her people!!!

nato we will never forget the crimes!

serbia forget NATO membership! ALBANIA is a nato member at will veto membership of serbia

Also, I notice that many Albanians here are frothing at the mouth and hoping that Albania will veto Serbia from entry. First of all, they won't, for what reason? Secondly, what difference does it make? Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Finland (not to mention Switzerland) are completely unaligned and do not feel the need to join NATO, so why should Serbia? Just cheap provocations.

This looks like a rebuttal to the Russian ambassador's comments in Belgrade a few days ago. And he was only talking about EU. Russia could be pissed if Serbia decides to join NATO. But it looks like that they may have to if they also want to join EU. At least those are the statements coming now. "hand in hand"

Big decision for Serbia. It will be decided after the next elections. There may be early elections again and if the bloc that wants EU wins even more votes than now, then Serbia goes the EU and NATO way, if the radicals win more, then it will be an interesting roller coaster ride which will keep Serbia behind a couple of extra years.

NATO membership is not important. I think the EU is something to target instead, and as a part of the EU, one becomes a part of the ESDP, which guarantees you security anyway, so who cares about NATO membership?

Times have changed anyway, it's not like countries invade other countries anymore, enough that one develops their own army and remainds neutral in world affairs, I think that this is the best option to have.

NATO just means that one needs to upgrade to a certain standard, which only really strains the taxpayer.

Thanks good Serbia will never join that criminal organization,even Tadics DS are not speaking about it anymore.
And the Albanians will veto us,thanks god they at least once they are doing us a favour.

serbia can try any time to get in the nato longest croatia and albania are part of nato serbia will never be on nato

I see Albanians say "Albania would veto".

Albania cant veto for one and only reason which is their EU integration. It would halt Albania's EU integration cause EU would see that if Albania veto Serbian NATO membership it will veto Serbian EU membership too.

Serbia in EU is much more important then Albania in EU, simply cause of Serbian better geographic position, and of course cause Serbia is way more developped and much more intresting for foreign investissement. Not to talk that Serbia is bigger then Albania for a half or more.

Second reason is Albania's image and famous "neighboor relations" needed for EU.
Vetoing somebody is never good. Espacialy if there is no reason since Serbia and Albania have no open issues in anything.

Croatia need Serbia cause of the trade and economic compatibility between 2 countires. And Croatian president sad Serbia/Croatia relations are "very good".
So i would rather see Croatia supporting Serbia in any membership then to veto serbia.

Kumanovo agreement is a peace treaty between enemies. Serbia is formally the enemy to NATO as long as NATO insists on that agreement.

@ all posters, including "mouth frothing" camp, and inspired by ALBAN's remark about ex-communist-still-Russia- loving-Serbia:
QUESTION:
Out of 27 EU members,how many countries
-had NAZI governments
-were NAZI allies
-had communist governments
-belonged to Eastern-European Russian block
-belonged to both NAZI and communist camps at some point

Using the same criteria, pls. give the numbers for NATO membership as well.
Thanks in advance.

Serbia will join NATO someday, but anytime soon.

The Adriatic 3 is already expanded to 3+2. It first included only Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Not it is expanded to Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina. The long term plans are to have it expend to Serbia and Kosovo as well. This will make the Adriatic Charter expend from A3 (Albania, Croatia and Macedonia) to +2 (Montenegro and Bosnia Hercegovina) and in the future +2 (serbia and kosovo).

This declaration by Schefer seems more like a political idea which in itself it doesn't hold much reality for soon invitation. But rather wants to ease the unhealthy relations with Serbia and make it distant with Russia.

Serbia's membership would be a great contribution for the whole region and will manifest an end to the Balkan conflicts. But we have to be realistic and think about the problems that it will face to do so anytime soon. First, in the Strasburg meeting it was decided that NATO does stop expanding and didn't have any real plans to do so for now. This means that it can be a good 4 years at least since Barack Obama is the President of the U.S. and that's where the major influence on those matters is decided. On the other hand you have to think of the conflicts that Serbia has with the other NATO members. In this list you can include Hungaria, Croatia and Albania. Hungaria and Albania can use it very well for their political interest, Hungary to grant more freedom to the Vojvodina and Albania can require a recognition of Kosovo as an independent state. It would cost them nothing to do so and it will just be the right and the most benefitial decision in their interest.

Russia would lose and win with the membership of Serbia in NATO. It would lose because its great partner in the Balkans and one of the countries with the closest ties to Russia in Europe will join an alliance that has not much in common with the Russian interests. On the other side it can be argued that it will win, because Serbia can still maintain its close ties with Russia and would be a representative of the Russian initiatives within the NATO alliance.

To conclude with, we can say that Serbia will join NATO someday and there are good chances to do so. The whole Balkan region would benefit from it so would Europe itself. Even though it is not likely that it will happen soon. And when it will Serbia will face a lot of struggles and political barriers on its way to do so. Time will tell best.

No to NATO, and no to the EU!!! As Donnie Brasco said in the movie, "forget about it." Serbia, "forget about it."

If Serbia joins NATO then we have really lost! I have only one question: why join NATO? I know why the Americans would like us to join: so we can fight their wars for them.

"Also, I notice that many Albanians here are frothing at the mouth and hoping that Albania will veto Serbia from entry. First of all, they won't, for what reason?"

Let's see, "border issues"? Or just about anything else.

>> "Secondly, what difference does it make? Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Finland (not to mention Switzerland) are completely unaligned and do not feel the need to join NATO, so why should Serbia? Just cheap provocations."

You compare Serbia, an ex-communist country and still Russia-loving with Sweden and Ireland?

Alban

"Let's see, "border issues"? Or just about anything else."

What border issues? What do you mean "just about everything else"? Serbia and Albania have good relations with one another. Hatred between the people has no impact on the government's decisions, otherwise the two countries would be at war.

"You compare Serbia, an ex-communist country and still Russia-loving with Sweden and Ireland?"

So what if they are ex-communist? So is Albania. Who says Serbia is Russia-loving? Again, opinions of the general populace have no impact on the country's political decisions, otherwise the world would still be in the dark ages.

I get the impression that the Albanians just want to feel important that they can veto someone for something, because they were not able to do it before in the past.

As long as there is Albania and Croatia with veto rights, Serbia cannot be part of NATO, try Russia as always.

Lately it's a rule..First Nato after Eu..but things can change if USA and Eu will diverge..

"What border issues?"

Albania recognizes Kosova as an independent state, Serbia says Kosova is Serbia. Solve that first.

>>What do you mean "just about everything else"?

For NATO countries can make any objections, read the rules.

>> "Serbia and Albania have good relations with one another.

We really do, you must follow the press very closely. Just 2 months ago serbian officials accused Berisha of selling Serbian organs in the black market. Oh, and then there is this Kosova thing...

serbia can try any time to get in the nato longest croatia and albania are part of nato serbia will never be on nato

“Also, each of these two organizations has its own instruments for helping countries that wish to join, prepare for membership,” he added.

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

Does everyone see what the NATO war criminals are trying to do here? They are obviously so worried with Serbia's close relationship with Russia that they are insinuating EU membership is linked to NATO membership, knowing that NATO is very unpopular in Serbia after their illegal and barbarian 78 day bombing campaign - which was a blatant war crime.

Tadic, Sutanovac, and the rest of Munter's yellow minion brigade are pulling out all the stops to pull the wool over the Serbian public's eyes. Well, Jap de Hoop, it takes more that lies and propoganda to fool the Serbian public. NATO has become an anti-Serb instrument of German foreign policy (and the KLA terrorist's air force), and the only way to get into the Serb good books is to throw Wesley Clark and Madeline Albright (and Solana's whole gang) in jail for their very obvious war crimes against the Serbian people, clean up the depleted uranium and cluster bombs they have left on Serbian soil, rescind recognition of the fake, illegal, and immoral 'state' of Kosovo by all NATO states, pay back the 60 billion dollars in damage they have done to Serbian infrastructure...and this would be just a start.
Until this is done, NATO is no place for Serbia. Serbia is best free and independent, with very close ties to our true protector Russia - whose actions show that they are our true friend and ally.
Cheers!!

serbia forget NATO membership! ALBANIA is a nato member at will veto membership of serbia

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

This is true. My country, Romania and the other EU members from Central and Eastern Europe first joined NATO and then the EU.

However, there are EU members which are not members of NATO. Austria, Sweden, Finland and Ireland.

This looks like a rebuttal to the Russian ambassador's comments in Belgrade a few days ago. And he was only talking about EU. Russia could be pissed if Serbia decides to join NATO. But it looks like that they may have to if they also want to join EU. At least those are the statements coming now. "hand in hand"

Big decision for Serbia. It will be decided after the next elections. There may be early elections again and if the bloc that wants EU wins even more votes than now, then Serbia goes the EU and NATO way, if the radicals win more, then it will be an interesting roller coaster ride which will keep Serbia behind a couple of extra years.

“It has been demonstrated in practice over recent years that EU and NATO memberships tend to go together,” he said.

Mr. Scheffer is wrong here.

My country, Ireland, has been an EU member since 1973 but has NEVER been a member of NATO.

Ireland sees no benefit in joining this organisation and is quite happy to stay neutral.

I think, also, that Mr. Sceffer must have very thick skin if he expects Serbia to join an organisation which caused so much havoc, grief and persecution throughout the Balkans since 1989 and to the Serb Nation in particular.

Is it not time for NATO members themselves to conduct a moral inventory of their uncalledfor actions and gross misdeeds and begin to make amends to those they have terrorised?

MB,Ireland

Lately it's a rule..First Nato after Eu..but things can change if USA and Eu will diverge..

Serbia will join NATO someday, but anytime soon.

The Adriatic 3 is already expanded to 3+2. It first included only Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Not it is expanded to Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina. The long term plans are to have it expend to Serbia and Kosovo as well. This will make the Adriatic Charter expend from A3 (Albania, Croatia and Macedonia) to +2 (Montenegro and Bosnia Hercegovina) and in the future +2 (serbia and kosovo).

This declaration by Schefer seems more like a political idea which in itself it doesn't hold much reality for soon invitation. But rather wants to ease the unhealthy relations with Serbia and make it distant with Russia.

Serbia's membership would be a great contribution for the whole region and will manifest an end to the Balkan conflicts. But we have to be realistic and think about the problems that it will face to do so anytime soon. First, in the Strasburg meeting it was decided that NATO does stop expanding and didn't have any real plans to do so for now. This means that it can be a good 4 years at least since Barack Obama is the President of the U.S. and that's where the major influence on those matters is decided. On the other hand you have to think of the conflicts that Serbia has with the other NATO members. In this list you can include Hungaria, Croatia and Albania. Hungaria and Albania can use it very well for their political interest, Hungary to grant more freedom to the Vojvodina and Albania can require a recognition of Kosovo as an independent state. It would cost them nothing to do so and it will just be the right and the most benefitial decision in their interest.

Russia would lose and win with the membership of Serbia in NATO. It would lose because its great partner in the Balkans and one of the countries with the closest ties to Russia in Europe will join an alliance that has not much in common with the Russian interests. On the other side it can be argued that it will win, because Serbia can still maintain its close ties with Russia and would be a representative of the Russian initiatives within the NATO alliance.

To conclude with, we can say that Serbia will join NATO someday and there are good chances to do so. The whole Balkan region would benefit from it so would Europe itself. Even though it is not likely that it will happen soon. And when it will Serbia will face a lot of struggles and political barriers on its way to do so. Time will tell best.

Isn't it amusing how NATO membership is on the agenda now. It is not a surprise really considering the Serbian government was installed by these people. Instead of making it a priority to remove NATO from occupied Serbian soil, they instead propose to join an organisation that has caused severe damage to Serbia and its people.

Could anyone imagine joining the NAZIs after they bombed and occupied Serbia during WWII?

And to the Serbian citizens of Albanian ethnicity here, if Albania or Croatia ever did veto Serbia they would in fact be doing us a great favour but somehow I don't really think their masters would allow such behaviour.

"Also, I notice that many Albanians here are frothing at the mouth and hoping that Albania will veto Serbia from entry. First of all, they won't, for what reason?"

Let's see, "border issues"? Or just about anything else.

>> "Secondly, what difference does it make? Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Finland (not to mention Switzerland) are completely unaligned and do not feel the need to join NATO, so why should Serbia? Just cheap provocations."

You compare Serbia, an ex-communist country and still Russia-loving with Sweden and Ireland?

There is NO WAY Serbia can join nato after the crimes they have committed on Serbia and her people!!!

nato we will never forget the crimes!

Also, I notice that many Albanians here are frothing at the mouth and hoping that Albania will veto Serbia from entry. First of all, they won't, for what reason? Secondly, what difference does it make? Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Finland (not to mention Switzerland) are completely unaligned and do not feel the need to join NATO, so why should Serbia? Just cheap provocations.

NATO membership is not important. I think the EU is something to target instead, and as a part of the EU, one becomes a part of the ESDP, which guarantees you security anyway, so who cares about NATO membership?

Times have changed anyway, it's not like countries invade other countries anymore, enough that one develops their own army and remainds neutral in world affairs, I think that this is the best option to have.

NATO just means that one needs to upgrade to a certain standard, which only really strains the taxpayer.

I see Albanians say "Albania would veto".

Albania cant veto for one and only reason which is their EU integration. It would halt Albania's EU integration cause EU would see that if Albania veto Serbian NATO membership it will veto Serbian EU membership too.

Serbia in EU is much more important then Albania in EU, simply cause of Serbian better geographic position, and of course cause Serbia is way more developped and much more intresting for foreign investissement. Not to talk that Serbia is bigger then Albania for a half or more.

Second reason is Albania's image and famous "neighboor relations" needed for EU.
Vetoing somebody is never good. Espacialy if there is no reason since Serbia and Albania have no open issues in anything.

Croatia need Serbia cause of the trade and economic compatibility between 2 countires. And Croatian president sad Serbia/Croatia relations are "very good".
So i would rather see Croatia supporting Serbia in any membership then to veto serbia.

Thanks good Serbia will never join that criminal organization,even Tadics DS are not speaking about it anymore.
And the Albanians will veto us,thanks god they at least once they are doing us a favour.

As long as there is Albania and Croatia with veto rights, Serbia cannot be part of NATO, try Russia as always.

Kumanovo agreement is a peace treaty between enemies. Serbia is formally the enemy to NATO as long as NATO insists on that agreement.

@ all posters, including "mouth frothing" camp, and inspired by ALBAN's remark about ex-communist-still-Russia- loving-Serbia:
QUESTION:
Out of 27 EU members,how many countries
-had NAZI governments
-were NAZI allies
-had communist governments
-belonged to Eastern-European Russian block
-belonged to both NAZI and communist camps at some point

Using the same criteria, pls. give the numbers for NATO membership as well.
Thanks in advance.

If Serbia joins NATO then we have really lost! I have only one question: why join NATO? I know why the Americans would like us to join: so we can fight their wars for them.

"What border issues?"

Albania recognizes Kosova as an independent state, Serbia says Kosova is Serbia. Solve that first.

>>What do you mean "just about everything else"?

For NATO countries can make any objections, read the rules.

>> "Serbia and Albania have good relations with one another.

We really do, you must follow the press very closely. Just 2 months ago serbian officials accused Berisha of selling Serbian organs in the black market. Oh, and then there is this Kosova thing...

No to NATO, and no to the EU!!! As Donnie Brasco said in the movie, "forget about it." Serbia, "forget about it."

Alban

"Let's see, "border issues"? Or just about anything else."

What border issues? What do you mean "just about everything else"? Serbia and Albania have good relations with one another. Hatred between the people has no impact on the government's decisions, otherwise the two countries would be at war.

"You compare Serbia, an ex-communist country and still Russia-loving with Sweden and Ireland?"

So what if they are ex-communist? So is Albania. Who says Serbia is Russia-loving? Again, opinions of the general populace have no impact on the country's political decisions, otherwise the world would still be in the dark ages.

I get the impression that the Albanians just want to feel important that they can veto someone for something, because they were not able to do it before in the past.