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President Boris Tadic formally applied for European Union membership for Serbia on Tuesday, almost two decades after ex-Yugoslavia collapsed in ethnic bloodshed that kept most of its republics out of mainstream Europe. The EU unfroze an interim trade agreement with Belgrade earlier this month and allowed citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro to travel freely to the bloc. The EU had previously blocked Serbia's progress, demanding full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and the arrest of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide over the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo. Here is a timeline on Serbia's path towards EU membership.

EmailSharePrint Back to Brussels Blog homepage The pace picks up on EU enlargement into the Balkans November 13, 2009 3:59pm Enlargement of the European Union is, almost imperceptibly, moving forward once more.  EU foreign ministers are expected next week to forward Albania’s membership application to the European Commission for an opinion.  This is a necessary technical step on the path to entry - small, but important. The Commission is already preparing opinions on the applications of Iceland and Montenegro.  The opinions will take quite some time to deliver - longer for Albania and Montenegro than for Iceland - but the machinery is now in motion. There are signs of progress elsewhere, too.  For a long time Serbia’s efforts to draw closer to the EU have been held back by the refusal of the Netherlands to permit implementation of Serbia’s EU stabilisation and association agreement.  The Dutch insist that Serge Brammertz, the chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor, must first of all declare that Serbia is fully complying with its efforts to capture war crimes suspects - principally, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander. Brammertz is due to hand his latest report to the UN Security Council in early December, and the Serbian government appears confident that it will be positive.  That would remove the Dutch veto and allow Serbia to make a formal application for EU membership.

By a 10-4 majority, the judges of the International Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that the unilateral declaration of independence by the then-Serbian province of Kosovo did not violate international law. In something of a fudge that will leave no one happy, the non-binding ruling found that as there are no provisions in international law restricting independence declarations, such as that pronounced by Kosovo on 17 February, 2008, the new state is neither abiding by international law nor in violation.

Serbian President Boris Tadic reacted to the ruling by saying: "Serbia of course will never recognise the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo because it believes that unilateral, ethnically motivated secession is not in accordance with the principles of the United Nations." However, Mr Tadic went on to say that Belgrade would now seek another UN resolution in order relaunch talks over Kosovo, and Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic urged Serbs in northern Kosovo to not be provoked into violence.

When UN made new Kosovo related decision on September 2010 it was believed that resolution would enable a dialogue for resolving this frozen conflict. With minimal preconditions new direct talks between Belgrad and Pristina and a possible deal between local stakeholders could open the way for sustainable solution. However resent events have have resulted in stalemate: President of separatist Kosovo government resigned and dissolution of the government itself have put the focus in Kosovo on next elections which will be held in December 2010. Meanwhile also Serbia starts soon preparations for its next next elections, due by spring 2012. Thus there is a narrow negotiation slot between the time when a new Kosovo government takes office and to end successfully before the Serbian election campaign makes any compromise impossible. The core question is if there is political will to start talks with the aim of reaching as comprehensive a compromise settlement as possible.

Die Europäische Union hat Serbiens Öffnung für Gespräche mit seiner abtrünnigen ehemaligen Provinz Kosovo belohnt und eine weitere Hürde auf dem Weg des Balkanlandes in die EU beiseite geräumt. Die EU-Außenminister beschlossen am Montag in Luxemburg einstimmig, die EU-Kommission mit einer Stellungnahme zum Beitrittsgesuch Serbiens zu beauftragen. Sollte diese positiv ausfallen, stünde als nächstes eine Entscheidung über den Beginn von Beitrittsverhandlungen an. Serbien hatte sich im September zu einem Dialog mit der Regierung im Kosovo bereiterklärt und darauf verzichtet, in den Vereinten Nationen neue Verhandlungen über den Status des Kosovo zu fordern. Die EU unterstrich zugleich, dass die vollständige Kooperation der Regierung in Belgrad mit dem internationalen Kriegsverbrechertribunal in Den Haag eine unerlässliche Bedingung für eine Aufnahme in die Gemeinschaft ist. Konkret fordert die EU die Festnahme des ehemaligen serbischen Militärchefs in Bosnien Ratko Mladic, einer der Verantwortlichen für den Bosnien-Krieg, sowie des ehemaligen serbischen Politikers in Kroatien, Goran Hadzic. Auch er wird als Kriegsverbrecher gesucht. Mladic wird schon lange in Serbien vermutet. UN-Chefankläger Serge Brammertz hatte Serbien im Juni vorgeworfen, die Ergreifung Mladics nicht gezielt zu verfolgen. Brammertz regelmäßige Berichte über Serbien sind eine wichtige Entscheidungsgrundlage für die EU-Außenminister. "Wenn wir ihn heute finden, werden wir ihn noch heute festnehmen", sagte der serbische Vize-Ministerpräsident Bozidar Djelic in Luxemburg. Die EU-Außenminister bekräftigten, dass jeder einzelne Schritt im Aufnahmeverfahren von der vollständigen Kooperation mit dem Tribunal abhänge und einstimmig von den 27 EU-Staaten beschlossen werden müsse. Darauf bestanden die Niederlande. Sie sind gegenüber Serbien besonders strikt. Zum einen hat das UN-Tribunal seinen Sitz in den Niederlanden. Außerdem waren es die niederländischen UN-Blauhelm-Truppen, die das Massaker an den rund 8000 Bosniern in der UN-Schutzzone Srebrenica 1995 nicht verhinderten.

Three EU states will in a UN court case in December argue that Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence was illegal. But EU officials say the judges' decision will not impact Kosovo's "irreversible" new status. Spain, Romania and Cyprus will join Serbia and Russia in giving anti-Kosovo depositions during hearings from 1 to 11 December at the UN's top legal body, the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Spain, Romania and Cyprus together with Slovakia and Greece declined to recognise Kosovo's independence last year. But the group of three's involvement in The Hague procedure marks a shift from passive to active resistance against Kosovo statehood. With Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands and the US set to make pro-Kosovo statements at the UN hearings, the verdict, which is expected in early 2010, could go either way.

Pristina expects the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which is expected shortly, to be "balanced" in terms of recognising Kosovo's sovereignty and in opening the door to further recognition by many more countries, the minister for the EU integration of Kosovo, Besim Beqaj, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

In October 2009, the United Nations approved Serbia's request to ask the ICJ whether Kosovo's secession from Serbia was legal. On 1 December 2009, the ICJ began to examine the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence. The judgement could tip Kosovo's future towards full international recognition or push it back under the auspices of the Serbian state.

Regional cooperation is not in fact one of the Copenhagen criteria. However, with regard to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the EU institutions have been insisting that applicants should resolve their bilateral disputes outside the EU framework; that they should cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); and that they should pursue regional integration and improve the situation of minorities. 

The European Parliament has called on the five remaining EU member states yet to recognise Kosovo's independence to do so. But leading MEPs admitted that no moves were expected before a ruling from the International Court of Justice on the legality of the former Serbian province's independence, due in the coming weeks.

n a resolution adopted yesterday (8 July), MEPs say they "would welcome the recognition by all member states of the independence of Kosovo," referring to the five that are dragging their feet – Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Romania and Slovakia. The parliamentarians urge the EU-27 to "step up their common approach towards Kosovo'' in order to make EU policies more effective for everyone in the territory. They also reject the possibility of a partitioned Kosovo. Cyprus, a divided island since the Turkish invasion in 1974, rejects Kosovo's declaration of independence owing to its stance on territorial integrity and the lack of UN approval. It is backed by Greece, while Spain – which has its own regional tensions – cites lack of respect for international law as justification for its opposition. Romania, home to an ethnic Hungarian community in 'Székely Land' that is pushing for a higher level of autonomy, and Slovakia, with its own significant Hungarian minority group, have also rejected the legality of Kosovo's secession from Serbia. Despite member states' differences regarding Kosovo's status, the Parliament affirms that it is vital for the EU to engage with Kosovo so that stability and security in the Western Balkans – the EU's immediate neighbourhood – can be preserved and built upon.