Brussels, 26/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - Radko Mladic's arrest in Serbia was announced in Belgrade on Thursday 26 May as Catherine Ashton was in the Serb capital to discuss with President Boris Tadic the possibility of giving momentum to the country's EU membership process. Announcing the good news to the press, Tadic, visibly very relieved, said “this removes a heavy burden from Serbia and closes a page of our unfortunate history”. He also said he was convinced this opened the door to candidate status, membership talks and finally EU accession. The extradition of the former Bosnian Serb military leader charged with genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague is underway, he added. Catherine Ashton immediately congratulated the Serb authorities and welcomed what she said was “a very important day for international justice and for the rule of law”. She called for Mladic to be immediately transferred to the ICTY. With this new hurdle crossed, Serbia's accession process will be reactivated “with renewed energy” and, the EU high representative for foreign affairs said, “I hope that we will be able to move forward swiftly”. Stefan Füle, Enlargement Commissioner, also spoke of a great day for Serbia and the Western Balkans. He said “a great obstacle on Serbia's road to the EU has been removed”, underlining that Serbia “has proved its credibility”. Belgrade must now make the most of this “new momentum” and step up reforms in order to meet the other necessary criteria (justice, public administration, etc.) in order to be able to obtain candidate country status and move towards EU membership, Füle said. The commissioner was also optimistic about the ability of Serbia to put its hands on the second fugitive accused of war crimes, Goran Hadzic.
Serbia presented its request for accession in December 2009 and hopes to obtain candidate status by the end of the year. The Commission is currently preparing its “opinion”, due to be published in October. One of the criteria to be met by Belgrade in order to be recognised as a candidate country is to show proof of “full cooperation” with the ICTY. Announcing the arrest of Mladic, Serb President Boris Tadic said on Thursday that no one has any doubts now about the fact that Serbia is fully cooperating with the tribunal in The Hague. He went on to promise that his country would do everything to “finish the job” by arresting Goran Hadzic, the other person accused of war crimes. The Netherlands, which has always said that the arrest of Mladic (and of Goran Hadzic) were essential to allow Serbia to move forward towards accession, welcomed the news from Belgrade albeit underlining the fact that Serbia had other criteria to meet and that this did not “automatically” mean EU membership. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the arrest of Mladic was nonetheless “one more step towards Serbia's integration to the EU”. Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Austria) considers that the EU must now react in a positive manner and give Serbia candidate status “as soon as possible”. (H.B./transl.jl)