Serbia’s Painfully Wishful EU Bid
After a gut wrenching blow suffered by the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo in February 2008, Serbia was left empty handed and outraged by international backing for Kosovo’s statehood.
This move seemed to be yet another piece taken from those who believe that reconstituting Greater Serbia should continue to be ultimate goal of the state. For the more moderate thinkers and mainstream Serbs, Kosovo’s Western-backed move toward independence has delivered a stinging sense of both anger and betrayal.
Some have focused their anger on Western powers and large backers for Kosovo statehood, including attacks on foreign embassies and threats against their interests in the region. For instance, the U.S. Embassy in the Serbia’s captial, Belgrade, was attacked by rioters and partially set ablaze after Kosovo’s announced independence. This did not draw immediate reaction from the government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, suggesting tacit support for the actions.
Others in Serbia have focused their anger on the failure of their government to prevent Kosovo from seceding from Serbia, thereby making Serbia’s pro-Western politicians increasingly unpopular.
Anti-EU Strains Swell
One result of the fallout from Kosovo independence is the increasingly unpopularity of the European Union in Serbia and divisions among its leaders over joining the 27-nation bloc.
This was on display Tuesday as Serbia’s pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, placed Serbia on a path toward membership by signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. Such an agreement is a necessary precursor to any successful membership bid.
Makfax vesnik reports on these divisions…
Tuesday’s signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the European Union triggered diametrically opposite reactions among Serbian public.
In a number of towns across Serbia, President Boris Tadic’s supporters celebrated the signing of SAA, which puts Serbia on the track to EU membership.
The outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, on the other hand, threatened that after elections, the new government and the new parliament will annul the SAA.
EU Agreement Stirs Feelings of Division and Betrayal
The BBC notes that “Belgrade’s pre-membership deal with the EU is revealed by Serbia’s press as deeply divisive both for its political establishment and its people.”
Most dailies focus on the divisions between pro-Western President Boris Tadic and his Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who has promised to have parliament annul the agreement at the first opportunity.
“Agreement with EU signed, Serbia divided,” says the top headline in the pro-government daily Politika.
“The signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU has caused divided reactions among the parties,” the paper says, adding that that the deal looks set to make parliamentary elections in May “even more tense”.
The respected evening tabloid Vecernje Novosti agrees, predicting that both the pro-Western and nationalist camps will try to make political capital out of the deal.
While division is one aspect of the reaction from the Serbs over the SAA signing, betrayal is another.
The BBC goes on to list some other newspapers highlighting “the anger of nationalist Serbs, who were infuriated by most EU member states’ recognition of Kosovo’s declaration of independence.”
“Serbian pigs celebrate: They have given Kosovo away,” the top-selling populist tabloid Kurir sneers in its front-page headline, acidly contrasting the EU members’ stance on Kosovo with EU regulations requiring the humane treatment of pigs and cows - including the “2001 Pig Welfare Directive”.
“Betrayal of Serbia” is the even more strident headline in the nationalist tabloid Pravda, while a commentator laments what he says is Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s failure to oppose the pro-European course of President Tadic.
“In addition to goodwill, one needs to have strength, courage and readiness to solve problems. Had Kostunica had that, Serbia would not have been in the dark today, without hope,” the commentator laments.
EU is an Increasingly Hard Sell in Serbia
Certainly, EU membership is a formidible goal for any European nation seeking integration with its neighbors. The financial gains and immediate seat at the table of Europe’s decision-makers is a guaranteed boost for any country formerly under the flag of communist domination and now struggling to survive both as a democracy and a market economy.
For Serbia, a nation that has been plagued by war, divisive and deadly nationalism, and ruthless political leaders like Slobodan Milosevic, an opportunity to gain a foothold in the European community via the EU is an especially important step in its post-war development and move toward the West.
The problem is that the betrayal and anger left over from Kosovo and after a decade of many ‘promises made and promises broken’ by the West, the Serbian public is not rushing with grand excitement to join the EU, let alone signalling readiness to make the necessary sacrifices to fulfill the EU’s grueling membership criteria.
Agreement Signed Despite Failure to Turn Over War Criminals…
Tuesday’s signing of the SAA, has also reignited concerns that Serbia is getting a nod on EU membership progress, despite its failure to meet international demands that it hand over Serbia’s indicted war criminals to The Hague. This includes ex-Bosnian Serb leaders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, accused of involvement in the murder of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.
One leader, Chairman of the Bosnian tripartite Presidency Haris Silajdžić, exclaimed his anger and frustration with the EU, while accusing Serbia of getting special treatment.
Belgrade news outlet B92 reports…
Silajdžić said that “she (Serbia) is refusing to arrest those indicted for genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina.”
By signing this agreement, the EU has once more ignored the verdict of the International Court of Justice, “which Serbia is flagrantly violating by refusing to bring to justice the people responsible for the massacre of more than 8000 civilians,” reads a statement from Silajdžić’s cabinet.
“Although the EU’s practice is to strictly insist on the fulfillment of given conditions before intensifying relations with potential members, this last act proves that Serbia enjoys privileges like no other state,” he fumed.
He said that “some countries are lagging behind in the European integration process because of far less important conditions than the arrest of individuals responsible for the only genocide in Europe since the Second World War.”
Mr. Silajdžić fails to point out, however, that the SAA will not be implemented if these war criminals are not handed over. Germany’s Der Speigel reported, “Belgium and the Netherlands initially blocked the deal because of this lagging noncompliance (of handing over these war criminals). However, this week they softened their stance, settling for a compromise resolution that would make Serbia’s cooperation with the tribunal a necessary requirement for further steps towards EU membership.”
Serbia’s Domestic Politics Wrapped Around EU Agreement
In the Balkans, politics are very complicated indeed. Of course, some view the urgency for Serbia to secure an SAA with the EU a necessary political chip for pro-Western reformers heading into a parliamentary election on May 11th against a much-strengthened nationalist opposition.
EUBusiness has more on how signing the SAA will impact domestic politics in Serbia and the looming parliamentary elections…
Analysts say the signing of the SAA will influence the outcome of the snap parliamentary elections on May 11, effectively by shaping it as a referendum on Serbia’s European integration.
Pro-Western President Boris Tadic says Serbia has no alternative but to join the EU, while nationalists like outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica have sought to paint him as a traitor for doing deals with a group of nations that has backed Kosovo separatists.
“The signing of the SAA should clarify” the situation for voters confused by Serbia’s relations with the EU after Kosovo’s independence, said Svetlana Logar of political research institute Strategic Marketing.
“After this act, the EU certainly won’t send a message that Serbia has recognised the independence of Kosovo, which up until now has been the premise of some parties.
“The biggest confusion was caused by the status quo, and in this way a clarification of the situation is useful” to the pro-Western forces in the elections, Logar added.
Clarifying Serbia’s EU status post-Kosovo independence is just one of the many factors driving Tuesday’s agreement. Political forces on both sides of the country’s scheduled elections have seized the SAA as a chance to draw distinct differences between each other.
From the LA Times…
“Many enemies of the European future of Serbia have been frightening the citizens of Serbia that in the EU our identity will be endangered,” he said, referring to the ultranationalist political parties at home. He spoke in Serbian, and the remarks and signing ceremony were broadcast live on major Serbian television stations.
But Tadic’s rivals immediately seized on the accord as an election issue, portraying it as a sellout because, they maintain, Europe is trying to buy Belgrade’s acquiescence to Kosovo’s independence.
Vojislav Kostunica, the caretaker prime minister of Serbia, said Tadic was in effect accepting the independence of Kosovo, a “shameful and illegal” act. He said the next government would cancel the pact.
“We will never allow to anybody to sign [away] the independence of Kosovo on behalf of Serbia, and that is why today’s Tadic signature is worth absolutely nothing,” Kostunica said.
His party likened the signing of the pact to “the seal of Judas,” and others said they would move to have the president impeached once a new parliament is seated after the May 11 vote.
Tadic and his supporters argue that Serbia needs closer relations with the West to end its long, crippling isolation after atrocities committed by Serb forces in the Balkan wars made the nation a pariah.
“From today on, the path toward Serbia’s full EU integration is irreversible,” said Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, a Tadic ally.
Tags: balkans, Belgrade, EU, European integration, Greater Serbia, KFOR, kosovo, serbia, Vojislav Kostunica
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