Serbia: After decades of transformation, the former Yugoslav republic will begin negotiating to join the EU in January 2014. Once considered a pariah because of its role in the collapse of Yugoslavia, Serbia has made democratic reforms and captured fugitives wanted for war crimes.
Kosovo Serbs gather to mark the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo at Gazimestan, near the capital Pristina Friday. European Union leaders gave Serbia the go-ahead on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the bloc and also agreed to launch negotiations with Kosovo on a so-called association agreement on the path to eventual EU membership. The decision came after both countries reached a deal in April to improve relations.
Hazir Reka/Reuters
EnlargeSerbia?won the green light on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the European Union, capping a remarkable transformation in the prospects of the biggest former Yugoslav republic since the 1990s wars.
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The decision, taken at an EU summit, rewards?Belgrade?for an April deal to improve relations with its former province of?Kosovo, which broke away from?Serbia?in a 1998-99 guerrilla war.
EU leaders also agreed?Brussels?should launch negotiations with?Kosovo?on a so-called association agreement, which covers trade, economic and political relations and is a step on the path to eventual EU membership.
The leaders agreed talks would start in January 2014 "at the very latest" with?Serbia, which was long treated as a pariah because of its central role in the wars that tore through the?Balkans?after the 1991 collapse of?Yugoslavia.
"We are at a historic moment for the?Balkans?and for?Europe?as a whole,"?European Council?President?Herman Van Rompuy?told a news conference, noting that the decisions on?Serbia?and?Kosovo?came as?Croatia?prepares to join the?European Union?on Monday.
"These ... decisions are an immediate result of the courageous agreement?Belgrade?and?Pristina?reached last April," said Van Rompuy, who will travel to both capitals on Monday.
Serbia?and?Kosovo?have been at odds since?Kosovo?seceded in 2008 with Western backing. After months of EU-brokered talks, the two sides reached an agreement in April aimed at ending the virtual ethnic partition of?Kosovo?between its ethnic Albanian majority and a pocket of some 50,000 Serbs in the north.
The agreement still has to be fully implemented, and EU governments will assess progress before giving a final, formal go-ahead to talks later this year.
The EU negotiation process should help drive reforms in?Serbia, the largest country to emerge from the former?Yugoslavia, luring investors to its ailing economy.
Prime Minister?Ivica Dacic, leader of the co-ruling Socialists and ex-spokesman for late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, said his government had worked hard for the EU bid.
"The date for (EU) accession talks is the first step of this great journey we are about to undertake," Dacic said in a live broadcast of a cabinet session.
Defence Minister?Aleksandar Vucic, head of the conservative Serbian Progressive Party, said the Balkan state must do more to consummate reforms. "This is the turning point in our modern history.?Serbia?has demonstrated that no one can stop its way forward," Vucic told ministers.
In?Belgrade?about 2,000 hardline nationalists rallied peacefully against EU accession and demanded the resignation of the government.
CURRENCY BUOYED
The Serbian dinar swung upwards to 113.5 to the euro after the EU agreement from a low of 114.05 earlier in the day, currency traders in?Belgrade?said.
Mladen Dodig, head of research at Erste Bank in?Serbia, said the date for EU membership talks would be a major support for reforms and improvement in the business climate, and would boost investor confidence and foreign investment.
"This will have a stabilising effect for financial markets and the foreign currency market, but I also expect structural reforms," said?Miladin Kovacevic, the deputy head of the Serb Statistics Office.
NATO Secretary-General?Anders Fogh Rasmussen?welcomed the EU's decision and said KFOR, the NATO-ledKosovo?peacekeeping force, would "continue to play its role by ensuring a safe and secure environment for all people in?Kosovo". KFOR, in?Kosovo?since June 1999, comprises 5,000 troops from 31 countries.
Dacic said this week he hoped?Serbia?could wrap up membership talks in 4-5 years, although the widely held view in?Brussels?is that it is unlikely to be admitted before 2020.
In the past few years,?Serbia?has made notable strides towards the EU thanks to progress on democratic reforms and the capture of fugitives wanted for crimes during the Yugoslav wars.
Serbs consider?Kosovo?the fount of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith, but?Belgrade?lost control over the territory in 1999 when NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians in a counter-insurgency campaign by Milosevic's security forces.
Kosovo?is now recognised by 100 nations, including the?United States?and 22 of the EU's 27 members.
Of?Serbia's fellow ex-Yugoslav republics,?Slovenia?joined the EU in 2004,?Croatia?follows on Monday and tinyMontenegro?began membership talks last year.?Macedonia?is a candidate, while Bosnia has yet to apply.
($1 = 0.7691 euros) (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in?Belgrade?and Ethan Bilby in?Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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