Serbia hoped to sign an agreement with the European Union this month to formally embark on the road towards EU membership, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Tuesday.
"Serbia hopes that we are going to be able to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) on the 28th of January," he told reporters after meeting EU top diplomat Javier Solana.
The signing of the aid and trade agreement is regarded as the first formal step for a European nation to join the EU.
The EU has demanded that Balkan countries must cooperate with U.N. war crimes court based in the Hague, the Netherlands, by transferring remaining war crimes suspects to the tribunal before signing the deal.
"There is only one political condition for the signing of the SAA and this is full cooperation with The Hague tribunal," Jeremic said.
Jeremic, who also met with Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht on Tuesday, said that Belgium would not like the EU to sign the pact so soon with Serbia.
Belgium was "giving a great deal of attention to cooperation with The Hague," Jeremic told reporters, adding that De Gucht would hold talks on Jan. 17 and 18 with the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz "to get information from him as well as to whether this cooperation is full."
The EU has offered Serbia "fast track" membership if it allowed its breakaway province Kosovo to declare independence.
But Jeremic said that Serbia was convinced that the EU would need a new U.N. Security Council resolution to send a police and civilian mission it has announced at its Dec. 14 summit to help Kosovo's transition from the U.N. rule to independence.
"There's got to be a security council decision. This is the firm position of Belgrade. We're not going to change our mind on this," Jeremic stressed.
Kosovo, where 90 percent of its population are ethnic Albanians, has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 and is likely to declare independence in the coming weeks despite strong opposition from the Serbian side.
Source:Xinhua
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