Kosovo Must Not Hamper Serbia’s EU Bid, Cyprus
Cyprus said Friday it is time for the European Union to open accession talks with Serbia, and that the issue of Kosovo’s independence mustn’t be allowed to hamper the process.
“Serbia itself feels it’s ready and its application for membership to the European Union should be evaluated on the same criteria as other candidate countries,” Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou told reporters after talks with his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic.
Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, refuses to recognize the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, as declared by its ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament in February last year.
The only other members of the 27-nation bloc with the same stance are Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
“Cyprus supports the immediate implementation of the EU-Serbia association agreement and we are disappointed over the delay observed on this issue by the European Union,” said Kyprianou.
He was referring to the Netherlands’ decision to block an E.U. trade and aid pact with Belgrade until genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, widely thought to be hiding in Serbia, is brought before a U.N. tribunal in The Hague.
Jeremic said in Brussels on Thursday that Belgrade intends to formally apply for E.U. candidacy before the year’s end. Other Serbian officials repeatedly express confidence that Mladic will be arrested within the same timeframe.
In Nicosia on Friday, Jeremic said Cyprus was Serbia’s “best and closest” ally within the European Union, membership in which he stressed was his country’s strategic goal.
Serbian support for joining the European Union has raisen more than 10 percentage points in the past month to 71%, a survey released Friday showed.
This compares with 60% in October, the poll of 1,600 people by non-government monitoring group Centre for Free Elections and Democracy indicated.
The increase in support for Serbia to join the 27-country bloc could be linked to a recent announcement that its citizens will be able to travel within the EU without the need for visas from January.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said in Brussels Thursday that Belgrade plans to apply for EU candidacy by the end of this year, hoping to join by 2014.
In April last year Serbia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, the first step on the long road to membership, but it has been frozen by Brussels because of Belgrade’s failure to arrest top warcrimes suspect, Bosnian Serb wartime military chief Ratko Mladic.
Mladic has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the United Nations war crimes court in the Hague for his role during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and is believed to be in hiding in Serbia.
November 06, 2009
AFP
Now is the perfect time for Serbia to say no.
greece along with cyprus= best serbia friend
there are bunch of unresolved European issues, not just Cyprus being occupied by Muslim Turks, but Turkey itself that is occupying land that it does not belong to it and it acquired by genocide of Greeks, Armanians, Bulgarians, Serbs and whole lotta other Christians that seek a payment in blood from Turkey.
So, countries like Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and other that have been molested by Islam need an alliance that will fix them up. For now it is controlled by Anglo-Saxons, but that need not be as we go on…
Days when a British political snob tells eastern European that they should suck up to a Msulim in name of tolerance are over… because their society is under Muslim seige… English snob is sucking the Muslim now.
New Euorope is in the EAST, and Serbia, being molested by Muslims the most is the paragon of the future freedom….
First the title of article is anti-Serb, be cause
it presents Kosovo as independent country.
If Serb media does that what can we expect from others?!
Second, this is delusional! Pure manipulation of Serb population!
Serbia will NEVER enter EU !!
NEVER!
“head of the Presidential Office, Petr Hajek, said in a televised interview that despite the fact that President Vaclav Klaus had signed the Lisbon treaty, he remained in opposition to major points of the document and might soon initiate the Czech Republic’s withdrawal from the EU”
RT news
NEW EU(confederation) will be soon created on the Franco-Germane core and it will be without countries like Bulgaria Romania Serbia etc.
Old EU and NATO will vanish soon..