Brussels, 22/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has not made Slobodan Milosevic's immediate extradition a condition for holding the Donors Conference for Serbia, scheduled for 29 June, nor for pledging donations, but it does warn that there is a "difference" and therefore a "margin of manoeuvre" between pledges and actual payment. By 29 June, any step towards better cooperation with the Tribunal in The Hague will "certainly influence the attitude of donors", said a Commission spokesman, stressing that "good cooperation should eventually include extradition to The Hague".
The Commission hopes that EUR 1.2 billion in donation pledges will be collected at the conference. This sum would represent total international community aid needed by Serbia for this year, according to the evaluation made by the World Bank and the Commission.