Serb president unveils strategy for accession to EU by 2012

By Stewart Fleming

Date: 07/10/04

BORIS Tadic, the newly elected president of the Republic of Serbia, wants to prepare his country to join the European Union by 2012. "Right now 2012 is a realistic expectation, but we can do better," he told European Voice yesterday (6 October).

Tadic defended his country's record in sending suspected war criminals to The Hague for trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

He pledged his "full cooperation" with ICTY. He said that this was in Serbia's national interests, not least because, until these issues were resolved, they would remain an obstacle to improving relations with the EU, the United States and the international financial institutions like the World Bank with whom Serbia is working to restructure its economy.

Tadic (46), who was minister of defence for Serbia-Montenegro in March 2003-April 2004, was making his first visit to Brussels since his election on 27 June when he defeated the ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nicolic of the Serbian Radical Party. He is widely seen as a strong pro-European and his election suggests that there is a narrow majority in a deeply divided electorate that wishes to see Serbia on a reform course.

Tadic emphasised the fragility of the political and security situation in the region and called for intensified regional cooperation in order to try and tackle the problems. "Without stability we do not have investment and without investment we will not have democracy," he said.

He said that resolving the crisis in Kosovo was crucial to stabilizing the region, which he described as "de-Balkanising the Balkans". But he insisted that "independence for Kosovo is totally unacceptable we all have our origins in Kosovo, my own family lived there a few centuries ago". He argued in favour of major efforts to decentralize government in order to give ethnic groups greater control over their own lives.

Describing himself as "the first non-communist president of Serbia", he stressed a commitment to protecting minorities and strongly emphasized the importance to the region of absorbing European values to prepare for EU membership. "We do not have to convince you that we are a European country, but we do have to bring into Serbia European values, standards and principles," he added.

But analysts in the region say that the office of president holds little authority over day-to-day policymaking and that there can be no certainty that his election will translate into real change. The election is seen to have left Serbia's minority government vulnerable to pressure from both the nationalist right and the pro-European centre.

Boris Tadic, the newly elected president of the Republic of Serbia, wants to prepare his country to join the European Union by 2012, 6 October 2004.