The European Commission’s enlargement chief urged Serbia to «get serious» about reforms it needs to implement to become an official candidate for European Union membership.
Serbia’s tasks include improving its judiciary to fight organized crime and corruption, tighter control of political party financing, changes to its electoral law, restitution of property seized under the former Communist regime and capturing two remaining war-crime suspects, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said after talks in Belgrade today.
«It is time for all the stakeholders in Serbia to get serious about reforms» needed before the country’s 2009 application for EU membership can be accepted, Fule said. Seventeen out of 27 EU states have ratified the bloc’s Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia, he said.
Serbia hopes to win the candidate status this year, even after its failure to arrest Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide in the 1990s Balkan wars.
«You deliver on reforms, and the EU delivers on your progress, Fule said. «You are given this chance this year.»
He also dismissed concerns about enlargement fatigue in the EU, saying it was «a myth, like the yeti — it is often discussed, but never seen.»
The Balkan country recently filled a 2,483-point EC questionnaire on its political, economic and social reforms. Its EU Integration Office said it is currently responding to 629 additional questions from Brussels.
03/18/2011
— Filed under: Politics
Tags: Serbia, The European Commission
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Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London has entitled its 2011 season «The Word is God» and will mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible with a cover-to-cover reading between Palm Sunday, 17 April, and Easter Monday, 25 April.
03/17/2011
— Filed under: Society
Tags: Shakespeare, theatre
Police overnight arrested 35 people in northern Italy who are suspected of links to the Calabrian mafia and impounded some two million euros of assets. The 35 mafia suspects face charges of extortion, illegal waste disposal and drug trafficking, police said.
03/16/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Mafia, police
Some of Italy’s biggest banks are moving to increase their capital to comply with tougher rules on how much lenders must hold in reserve.
03/15/2011
— Filed under: Business
Tags: banks, Italy
David Cameron was accused yesterday of giving an «incomplete account» to MPs by failing to admit that the Conservatives agreed to British involvement in a controversial EU bail-out fund.
03/14/2011
— Filed under: Finance
Tags: David Cameron, EU
Europe’s highest court Tuesday referred a long-running legal case between brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI.BT) and smaller Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar over rights to the «Bud» trademark back to the lower General Court, citing errors in an earlier judgment.
03/13/2011
— Filed under: Business
Tags: Budejovicky Budvar, EU Court
It will be left to Eurozone finance ministers to deal with the Irish bailout deal and the sought-for reduction in the State’s interest rate.
03/12/2011
— Filed under: Politics
Tags: resolution, summit
Europe must invest heavily in efficiency to avoid spiralling energy costs and beat its own target to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission said in a report to be published later on Tuesday.
03/11/2011
— Filed under: Finance
Tags: cost, energy, fuel, low
Brussels — European Union newcomers Bulgaria and Romania still lag far behind the bloc’s standards on fighting corruption and organized crime, reports released Friday showed.
03/10/2011
— Filed under: Crime
Tags: Bulgaria, corruption, Romania
Some 200 EU passport-holders,including Bulgarians, are still stranded in Libya and willing to escape from it, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva said Monday.
03/9/2011
— Filed under: Society
Tags: Bulgaria, citizens, EU
