Serbia

EU Foreign Policy High Representative Catherine Ashton says the future of Western Balkans will be one of the priorities of her activities. Ashton also and pointed out that she wants for the whole region to progress towards the Union in the future. In a speech before MPs of the Foreign …

Serbia’s Parliament will debate drafts of two resolutions for condemning war crimes committed during the wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. One will condemn the crimes committed against Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) in Srebrenica, and the other will condemn all other war crimes.

A group of 200 academics, writers and journalists in Serbia has asked the country’s parliament to call a referendum on whether Serbia should join NATO. Speaking at a press conference, Serbian Academy member Matija Beckovic called for the referendum stressing that Serbia is now a neutral country which suffered “criminal …

Serbian Parliamentary Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović says that parliament has not received any official initiative for adopting a Srebrenica resolution. “I would personally support every resolution that condemns war crimes, including those in Srebrenica. In my opinion it is not enough for only Srebrenica to be included in it,” Đukić-Dejanović said.

Newly elected Croatian President, Ivo Josipovic, has repeated an earlier statement that his country might consider withdrawing its genocide suit against Serbia if Belgrade accepts certain conditions. Josipovic said that he doesn’t see a reason to continue with the genocide suit if Belgrade accepts talks on missing persons, war crimes …

Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos said on Friday (January 8th) that Spain will continue talks on the EU accession of Balkan countries. Moratinos, who will preside over the European Foreign Policy Council over the next six months said that talks with Croatia will continue. Four more chapters in Turkey’s EU accession …

EU senior officials for foreign policies and enlargement, Catherine Ashton and Stefan Fule, said that the integration of the Western Balkans must be supported. Ashton, who is the EU official for EU foreign and security policies, and Fule, the European Commissioner for policies towards new member-states and cooperation with Eastern …

Serbian President Boris Tadić said that even though a majority of the public won’t support it, the parliament must adopt a resolution condemning the Srebrenica crimes. “Politicians are the ones who must be capable of taking responsibility for such a political decision as well, because the citizens vote for them in …

Croatian President Stjepan Mesić said that he does not see a reason for his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadić to be angry over his visit to Kosovo. “I would have supported him coming with me here and meeting with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and the citizens that welcomed us whole-heartedly,” Mesić …

The Spanish EU presidency in Brussels has informed representatives of EU states about Serbia’s request to receive candidacy status for admission to the EU. A short information about the Serbian candidacy was presented at the meeting of the EU Western Balkans Committee and the EU Permanent Representatives Committee.