U.S. plans for Serbia

U.S. plans for Serbia

The U.S. administration has prepared a plan delineating Serbia’s international status for the next eight years, according to which Serbia will join the EU by 2014. The daily has learned that both president Tadić and prime minister Koštunica are acquainted with the plan. The White House allegedly proposes that the early elections should be held in December this year, followed by a coalition government comprising the Democratic party (DS), the Democratic party of Serbia (DSS) and G 17 Plus. The international community will in preparation for these elections alleviate some of the pressure on Serbia, helping the democratic forces to consolidate before the elections, the daily reports.

However, cooperation between DS and DSS is all but easy to achieve, but the plan addresses this introducing a compromise. It remains unclear how the democrats might collaborate on the new constitution since the party advocates a different legal approach than that favored by the DSS. This is important since the Administration allegedly called on the DS to help make and adopt the new constitution, while the DSS would in return agree to the early elections. The December date that is insisted on by the U.S. stems from the public opinion surveys which indicate that, despite the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) strong positioning within the electorate, the democratic forces would win. That would create conditions for the formation of a stable democratic government. The said surveys show that if the elections were held in December, SRS would win 35 per cent of votes, DS 25 per cent, while the “national front”, a term used by the Administration to describe a DSS-lead coalition, would win 20 per cent of votes. G 17 Plus and the Liberal-democratic party would also win seats.

The U.S. believes that a government to be formed in February 2007 should incorporate the following parties: DS, DSS, G 17 Plus. One of the conditions set before the new government will be Ratko Mladić’s extradition to the Hague tribunal by September 2007, six months after the government is sworn in. The daily concludes that if such a scenario were to play out, the U.S. would back Serbia in its bid to join Partnership for Peace in 2008 and NATO in 2012. Serbia would become the EU membership candidate in 2008, joining the Union in 2014.