“Serbia’s EU accession should go faster”

ROME Former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has called for a faster EU integration of Serbia. He said that Serbia deserved support so it would not feel isolated from the international community. “Serbia’s EU accession should go faster” Frattini, who is currently a president of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI), said that 2013 should be a year when “all reservations will disappear” and that a “key that will open the EU door to Belgrade is at the negotiating table with Kosovo”, Italian Nova news agency has reported. “It is expected that the rhythm of the Serbian-Kosovo negotiations will be continuous and regular. The last three meetings were very positive and I am therefore an optimist that the rhythm will continue and that a date for the beginning of the negotiations will be set (for Serbia),” Frattini stressed. The former Italian foreign minister said that Serbia should have support of the international community and that it “should not feel isolated”. “I have always thought that Serbia could play a key role in the stabilization of the Balkans and it therefore needs support. I was a proponent of the visa liberalization so Serbian citizens could move freely. I think I can say that Serbia deserves to move forward,” he added. On the margins of a conference on the Hague Tribunal, Frattini said that “Belgrade reacted with anger and disappointment” to acquittal of Croat Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Ramush Haradinaj. He warned that “Serbia could feel even more isolated” after Croatia’s EU accession next July. Frattini said he could understand such reactions but that decisions made by the international court that got its legitimacy from the UN needed to be respected. Franco Frattini Beta

“Serbia’s EU accession should go faster”

Frattini, who is currently a president of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI), said that 2013 should be a year when “all reservations will disappear” and that a “key that will open the EU door to Belgrade is at the negotiating table with Kosovo”, Italian Nova news agency has reported.

“It is expected that the rhythm of the Serbian-Kosovo negotiations will be continuous and regular. The last three meetings were very positive and I am therefore an optimist that the rhythm will continue and that a date for the beginning of the negotiations will be set (for Serbia),” Frattini stressed.

The former Italian foreign minister said that Serbia should have support of the international community and that it “should not feel isolated”.

“I have always thought that Serbia could play a key role in the stabilization of the Balkans and it therefore needs support. I was a proponent of the visa liberalization so Serbian citizens could move freely. I think I can say that Serbia deserves to move forward,” he added.

On the margins of a conference on the Hague Tribunal, Frattini said that “Belgrade reacted with anger and disappointment” to acquittal of Croat Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač and former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Ramush Haradinaj. He warned that “Serbia could feel even more isolated” after Croatia’s EU accession next July.

Frattini said he could understand such reactions but that decisions made by the international court that got its legitimacy from the UN needed to be respected.