Serbia submits EU membership application

[pampango]

Source: BBC

Serbia has formally submitted its application to join the 27-nation EU, in a move to end years of isolation.

The EU recently unfroze a free trade agreement with Belgrade. But Serbia still has to cross a major hurdle - the capture of two remaining war fugitives, before membership negotiations will begin in earnest. An important trade pact with the bloc has now come into force and Serbs were recently granted visa-free travel to most EU countries.

But Serbia's attempts to gain membership have been hampered by concerns, particularly in the Netherlands, over its failure to capture the two remaining war fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague. Belgrade is now pinning its hopes on the next report by the chief prosecutor, expected in June. If that proves a positive assessment of Serbia's hunt for the fugitives, the Dutch may be persuaded to soften and allow the next stage of the application process to move forward.

Our correspondent says a long road lies ahead: it is likely to take at least four years before the hand of EU membership extends to Serbia.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8425407.stm

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Sounds like Serbia will have to prove that it is really searching for Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, indicted by the International Criminal Court, before their application to join the EU proceeds to the next level. From the article it seems that the EU already has a free trade agreement with Serbia (which they just unfroze) and Serbs can already travel to most EU countries without a visa.

It will be interesting to see how Serbia is integrated into the EU economy. Serbia's ($10,800 per capita) even poorer than Romania ($12,600) was when it joined the EU in 2007.