The new Serbia: fast forward towards the EU?

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has declared his ambition to make 2009 “the year of the Western Balkans". This Policy Brief by Srdjan Cvijic highlights the stumbling blocks which must be overcome to usher in a new phase in the EU’s relations with Serbia, but argues that the Union should speed up the procedure for granting the country ‘candidate status’ for EU membership, both to encourage the necessary reforms and to prevent a resurgence of the nationalist element in Serbian politics.