Brussels, 09/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU heads of state and government decided on Friday 9 December to delay the decision on whether or not to grant candidate status to Serbia until the Council meeting in February 2012, a decision that will be confirmed by the European Council in March 2012. Summit Conclusion: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/126714.pdf
Welcoming the fact that that Serbia has re-engaged in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and is moving forward with implementation of agreements, the European Council calls on the Council “to examine and confirm that Serbia has continued to show credible commitment and achieved further progress in moving forward with the implementation in good faith of agreements” concluded in the dialogue with Kosovo, including joint management of crossing points, to reach agreement on inclusive regional cooperation “to enable EULEX and KFOR to execute their mandates”.
The heads of state and government also noted “the considerable progress” Serbia had made towards fulfilling the political criteria set by the EU and the stabilisation and association process requirements. They said that Serbia had reached “a fully satisfactory level” in its co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Serbia “has taken bold steps to bring Europe's most wanted war criminals to international justice”, said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
“Any other decision would have had considerable and deep consequences on the lives of our citizens”¸ said Serbian President Boris Tadic, stating that this decision would not weaken his resolve. “My position is still that the road we have to take leads to the EU and I will never give up on this”, he added. He said that he wanted progress in the dialogue with Kosovo, and he stated that he was hopeful of being granted candidate status when Serbia's application is reviewed in February and March of next year. (CG/transl.rt)