Montenegro’s march to join EU
PODGORICA – Montenegro took its first step toward European Union membership on Thursday, clinching a key agreement with the bloc ahead of its former sister state Serbia, whose talks are in limbo over past war crimes. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and Montenegrin Prime Minister Zeljko Sturanovic initialed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), the first formal step toward accession, in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica. «Initialing the agreement is a gateway to EU candidacy if the action plan is implemented efficiently and well,» Rehn said. «It all depends on Montenegro and its reform progress, especially in fighting corruption, in criminal and juridical reform and in administrative capacity.» Sturanovic said the pact was «a turning point,» which would unite Montenegrins and motivate them for further reforms. Half the size of Belgium and home to 650,000 people, the Adriatic state hopes its size and tourist appeal will help it slip through the cracks of an increasingly enlargement-weary EU. Its people voted to leave their union with Serbia last May, largely in the belief that Belgrade’s political baggage from the Yugoslav wars was holding them back. Their government aims to clinch candidate status by 2010. «If only Serbia could secede from Serbia so it could also continue talks!» wrote a commentator on Serb news website B92. Serbia’s EU talks have remained suspended since last spring over its failure to hand over top Bosnian-Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the UN tribunal in The Hague. Rehn said Brussels «looks forward to continuing talks with Serbia soon,» once Belgrade fulfilled its obligations to the court – shorthand for delivering Mladic. In a Thursday editorial in the daily Vijesti, Rehn wrote that Montenegro should strengthen its institutions and the EU will watch closely whether the legal system respects «the basic principles of independence, efficiency and responsibility.» Montenegro would also get -30 million a year to help with reforms, Rehn said. He headed to Bosnia yesterday with a sobering warning to the country’s Muslim, Croat and Serb leaders, whose bickering on reforms has left it last in the queue of Balkan EU hopefuls along with Serbia. Their failure this week on a police reform the EU says is a key condition for an SAA got an unusually strong reaction from Rehn. He condemned nationalist tensions, telling the European Parliament «we have had enough of it, frankly.» Among neighboring states, Albania has signed its SAA but is seen as having a long way to go on reforms. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became an official EU candidate in December 2005, but has been given no date for accession talks. Croatia started talks in October 2005. It hopes to join ex-Yugoslav Slovenia, the region’s first EU member, by 2010.
