EU tells Serbia and Montenegro to move closer

Date: 15/05/03

SERBIA and Montenegro have been warned that they must develop common structures if they are to forge closer links with the EU.

Geoffrey Barrett, the European Commission's ambassador in Belgrade, said the two ex-Yugoslav states must nominate just one person to represent them both in trade talks with the Union. The two countries formed a loose federation last year under an accord brokered by Javier Solana, the EU's high representative on foreign affairs.

"We insist on a single interlocutor if they are to sign a stabilization and association agreement (SAA)," Barrett told European Voice. "Securing an SAA would allow the two countries to gradually integrate into the Union's single market. They know that."

EU policymakers fear any further fragmentation in the Balkans could destabilise the volatile region. But their efforts to maintain the Serbia-Montenegro union suffered a setback last weekend when pro-independence candidate Filip Vujanovic won Montenegro's presidential election. Central to his campaign was that "citizens should say in a referendum after three years whether the union will survive or vanish".

• In a hard-hitting report last month, conflict resolution think-tank the International Crisis Group complained that attempts to preserve "regional stability have been hampered by an unnecessary obsession with keeping Serbia and Montenegro in a single state".

The European Union has called on Serbia and Montenegro to develop common structures if they hope to join the EU in the future.