EU debates rapprochement with Serbia

Talks are currently ongoing in Luxembourg to persuade Belgium and the Netherlands to sign an association agreement with Serbia as a way of supporting pro-European forces within that country before it holds its legislative elections on May 11th. Academics Mient Jan Faber and Sonja Licht criticise the stance taken by the Netherlands, which demands that war criminal Ratko Mladic should first be apprehended. "We feel that the Netherlands' policy is one of double standards. All countries, including the Netherlands, have signed a similar agreement with Bosnia. The Netherlands did not demand the extradition of Radovan Karadzic, the other prime suspect in the Srebrenica genocide, who is in hiding in Bosnia. Why Mladic and not Karadzic ?...If the Netherlands continue to hold the EU to ransom and to block any association and stabilisation agreement, then the [Tomislav] Nikolic camp [nationalist, anti-European] will have the wind in its sails."

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