EP official on Dutch stance
10 August 2009 | 11:50 | Source: FoNet, Danas BELGRADE -- Longtime Balkans rapporteur for the EP Joost Lagendijk says the Dutch stance regarding Serbia’s further EU integration is "unjustified". “I understand that an accent has been placed on Serbia’s full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and on the strong desire to see General Mladić extradited, but I think that the moment that was chosen for this and the insistence on Mladić alone is counterproductive,” Lagendijk told Belgrade daily Danas. Keeping Serbia waiting after having made its first steps towards the European Union and after having elected a pro-European government increases the risk of strengthening of nationalist and anti-European forces in Serbia, he said. It is of great interest to the EU for a democratic Serbia to make further progress and this is why everything should be done to support the democratic forces, and not to disrupt them, because only they will extradite Mladić to the Hague before talks of joining between Serbia and the EU begin, Lagendijk said. “I think that the EU must keep to its demands of having Mladić extradited to the Hague, but it should not use this argument to block progress at the very beginning of Serbia’s European integration process, as Holland is doing now,” he said. According to him, the EU could first ratify and begin implementing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) in order to stimulate Serbia to make added efforts towards becoming a candidate for EU membership. “It should be made clear from the beginning that the EU will never take the third step and begin negotiations with Serbia until Mladić is arrested,” Lagendijk said. Democrats in Serbia should be able to show something convincing to the majority of citizens so that it would make sense to vote for the pro-European parties. There would then be a greater support for arresting Mladić as well, he stated. If Serbia is not moving towards the EU because it is stuck at the beginning, it will be very easy for nationalists to argue their stances against the EU and pro-European parties. The EU should try to stop such a scenario, and Holland’s stance is not helping, Lagendijk said. "Serbia and Kosovo" will not enter the EU until there is an agreement between them for "bilateral or regional cooperation", continued this European Parliament official. "For the Balkans as a whole, it is absolutely necessary to face the recent history in order to transform these countries into democratic countries, ready for joining the EU," he conc http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=08&dd=10&nav_id=61070
