EU Urges Serbia to Speed Up Reforms to Win Candidate Status
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
