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The legal problems encountered by EU-Lex, the EU mission in Kosovo, could soon be solved, with diplomats currently in talks over plans to share the leadership with UNMIK, the United Nations peace-keeping mission.

Background: The EU decided in February 2008 to deploy a 2,200 strong 'Rule of Law' mission to Kosovo under the name 'EU-Lex Kosovo'. Its deployment has already started, after having been delayed for both technical and political reasons.  The initial objective was for EU-Lex to take over from UNMIK, the civilian mission established in the Serbian province following the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in June 1999. But Serbia and Russia strongly protest against EU-Lex, because this mission has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council (EurActiv 16/04/08). The objective of setting up an EU mission in Kosovo is highly political. The EU has ambitions to take over the post-crisis management of a territory on European soil. It previously failed to do so in 1999 when it had to resort to NATO to stop the ethnic cleansing and acts of extreme violence perpetrated by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. 

Under plans originally foreseen by the EU, the 2,200 strong EU-Lex mission would eventually replace UNMIK as the leading rule-of-law mission in the new-born state of Kosovo.  But faced with rejection from Serbia and Russia, which have both challenged the mission's legal legitimacy, diplomats are now drawing up plans for the two missions to co-exist under joint command.  The solution would provide the EU with a face-saving trick, according to diplomats who were speaking to EurActiv on condition of anonymity. This is because UNMIK has already been accepted by Serbia and Russia, which has a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. 

Following six weeks of tense negotiations, the Serbian Socialists yesterday (23 June) agreed to form a government with the pro-European bloc of President Boris Tadic, in a move seen as an important step towards Serbia's future EU membership.

The agreement with the Socialist Party of former dictator Slobodan Milosevic provides Tadic's bloc with a comfortable majority in the 250-seat parliament. Tadic, who clearly won the elections in May but could not reign alone, was confident that the new government would be formed "very soon". Two smaller parties - United Serbia, a breakaway former partner of the Socialists and the Bosniak 'List for European Sandzak' - had already joined the alliance earlier (EurActiv 12/06/08).  

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski attacked Greece for demonstrating "power" and "arrogance" over the infamous 'name dispute' following a disappointing EU summit for Skopje last week.

Background: In April, Athens vetoed Skopje's invitation to join NATO, arguing the name 'Macedonia' could lead Skopje to make territorial claims over Greece's own northern province of the same name.  A nationalist backlash followed in the small country of 2.5 million, which US former assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrook famously called "a hole in the middle of nothing".  Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski decided to ride on this wave and called for early elections. Macedonian legislators have ignored warnings from leading MEPs that early elections would threaten the country's EU accession (EurActiv 14/04/08). Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn warned in the meantime that the unresolved 'name dispute' with Greece could negatively affect Macedonia's EU agenda. 

The EU summit conclusions, adopted by European heads of state and government on 20 June, did not specifically mention that Macedonia would begin EU accession talks in 2008, to the disappointment of the small Balkan republic. 

Published: Wednesday 4 July 2007 | Updated: Thursday 5 July 2007 Serbia has to adapt to the EU and not the other way round if it wants to become a member, argues David Gowan in a June 2007 paper for the Centre for European Reform (CER). Related: LinksDossier:   EU-Western Balkans relations The EU must stand ready to encourage and reward any shift in Belgrade’s stance towards Kosovo by resuming association talks and eventually offering candidate status, he believes. However, Serbia must earn this by genuinely and consistently demonstrating European values and maturity of behaviour if membership is to become a reality, he adds. 

The announcement by Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn that talks will be reopened with Serbia follows the arrest of alleged war criminal Zdravko Tolimir on 31 May 2007 (see EurActiv 31/05/07). Tolimir, a senior military aid to General Mladic, was handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. 

A small group of politicians from around the EU have published a repackaged treaty for the bloc, hoping to feed into the emerging consensus among member states that a "simplified treaty" has to be extracted from the ashes of the rejected EU constitution.

The treaty has been reduced to 70 articles (12,800 words) plus two protocols, one containing institutional changes and one containing policy innovations - by contrast the original EU constitution contained 448 articles and around 63,000 words. The chopped down dimensions come from only taking the innovations contained in the third part of the treaty - which essentially ties together former EU treaties - and putting them into additional protocols.

Writer and commentator on European affairs Kirsty Hughes and Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, senior analyst at the Elcano Institute in Madrid argue in this article, that the EU should move on following the institutional impasse and regain political confidence.

Die Kommission hat ihre Zustimmung für die Wiederaufnahme der Gespräche mit Serbien über einen Stabilisierungs- und Assoziierungsvertrag (SAA) gegeben. In dieser Woche wird in Belgrad der Besuch der Chefanklägerin des Internationalen Gerichthofs für Kriegsverbrechen, Carla del Ponte, erwartet.

Die Ankündigung des Kommissars für Erweiterung, Olli Rehn, dass Gespräche mit Serbien wieder eröffnet würden, erfolgte nach der Verhaftung des mutmaßlichen Kriegsverbrechers Zdravko Tolimir am 31. Mai 2007 (EurActiv 31. Mai 2007). Tolimir, einer der engsten Militärberater des Generals Ratko Mladic, wurde dem Internationaler Strafgerichtshof für das ehemalige Jugoslawien (ICTY) in Den Haag übergeben.

Even though the radicals won most votes in Serbia's general elections (EurActiv 22/01/07), two-thirds of the seats in parliament will lean towards democracy. Therefore, a group of pro-European reform-oriented parties is likely to form the new government.

In Short:The Commission has fleshed out what 'absorption capacity' actually means for future EU-applicant countries.Brief News:Alongside the 8 November progress reports on Turkey and the Balkan applicant nations, the Commission also spelled out its future enlargement strategy. The absorption capacity, which achieved renewed importance at the EU summit in June 2006 (see EurActiv 16 June 2006),  has been renamed to the less controversial "integration capacity".

Iceland's government submitted a proposal to parliament on 25 May to authorise the start of negotiations for membership of the European Union. Analysts say the country's accession talks could be finished in 12 months.

Background: Iceland was hit severely by the economic downturn. Prior to its meltdown, Iceland's banking-sector assets had grown from about 96% of GDP in 2000 to about 800% by the end of 2006, and were worth around 10 times its GDP on the eve of the crisis.  But late last year the country received a $10 billion financial rescue package led by the International Monetary Fund.  Iceland's centre-right government collapsed in January following the country's bankruptcy as a result of the global financial turmoil. Since then, the country has been governed by a centre-left coalition under interim Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.  As Croatia's EU accession bid continues to stall, Brussels has indicated that Iceland is welcome to apply for membership, providing a piggy-back for amendments to the Lisbon Treaty promised to Ireland in the hope of obtaining a positive result in the second referendum on the text, planned for October (EurActiv 30/01/09). 

Support for negotiations on EU membership, and ultimately adopting the euro currency, has risen following the economic meltdown that ensued after Iceland's banks all collapsed under the weight of massive debts.  Finance Minister and Left-Green leader Steingrimur Sigfusson has said he would not oppose the proposal, and Icelandic media have speculated about half of the party could vote in favour. 

As it continues to enlarge, the European Union needs to review its current vote weighting and abandon the veto system, Erhard Busek, special enlargement advisor to the Czech EU Presidency, told EurActiv in an interview.

"Personally, I'm convinced that the current voting weight repartition, as well as the lack of qualified majority vote in most of the situations, is the real background of these hesitations. It has nothing to do with region, because it's completely clear for all member states that all the Western Balkan countries should become members of the EU," Busek said.  He also expressed his personal view that in order to avoid infighting between neighbours, Western Balkan countries could more easily join the EU as a bloc. As an example, he referred to the Croatia-Slovenia border dispute (EurActiv 10/03/09), which he said should be solved by negotiations.  "My personal opinion is that […] there could be a bloc of entering countries. Because the real danger is - and we have to learn from the experience of Slovenia and Croatia - is that one country blocks the neighbouring country because of bilateral problems. It's a real nonsense and I think it's better to do it all together," Busek said. 

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Ðelić said yesterday (24 March) that the EU had gone "a bit too far" by giving five billion euro for the stimulus plan to its member states, and "not a single euro cent to any of the south-east European countries".

Many of the Western Balkan countries have already been exposed to the effects of the crisis. Industrial production and foreign direct investment are slowing down, and most countries are resorting to international loans that will put an additional burden on their balances of payments. A few weeks ago, the Serbian Central Bank (NBS) governor still hoped that growth could reach 1.5 -2% in 2009. But the government of Serbia was last week forced to negotiate a new agreement with the International Monetary Found (IMF) for a loan worth around €3bn ($3.88bn).

According to the deputy PM, "there is too much difference between being in or out" of the EU. "If you are in, like Latvia or Hungary, you get 10 billion, but if you are a clear future member but still not formally in, it is very difficult to access resources, to go around the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) limitations, to go around the European Central Bank regulations or even the structural funds in the area of infrastructure and social cohesion," he said (EurActiv 10/02/09).