Serbia's EU dilemma

Pressure to arrest Mladić and Kosovo status talks influence Serbian public opinion and state policy concerning future EU integration.

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Tuesday, 01.08.2006.

14:13

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Serbia's EU dilemma

In its report from Belgrade, UPI news agency reports on rising Serbian skepticism at joining the European union, as a result of EU pressure on Belgrade to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, quoting experts.

Public support for Serbia's EU membership was its highest -- 73 percent of the populace -- in 2003. Polls now indicate is it less than 60 percent, with expectations that it will keep falling, Belgrade's Beta news agency said Monday quoting the Balkan Insight Research Web site.

Jovan Teokarević, dean of the University of Belgrade's political science department, told Beta Serbia's support to European integrations originally was strong because citizens did not know how EU membership would influence their standard of living.

Now, the situation has changed and citizens believe the EU is putting too much pressure on the Serbian government to arrest Mladic, who is wanted on war crimes charges stemming from the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

The agency states that many Serbs consider Mladic a national hero.

UPI reminds that The European Union broke off association talks with Serbia, because Serb leaders missed a deadline to hand over Mladic. The EU said talks could resume when Mladic is transferred to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

In his interview to the daily Danas, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Koštunica described the country’s priorities in unequivocal terms: preserving Kosovo within Serbia in some sort of autonomy rates higher than immediate EU membership on the Serbian government’s list.

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