Strasbourg, 12/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - Serbia-Montenegro is “sufficiently prepared” for beginning negotiations with the European Union with a view to concluding a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (AAS), Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn was pleased to inform the press on Tuesday in Strasbourg. In its feasibility study approved that same day, the Commission therefore recommends that the Council should open talks and foresees presenting a proposal for a negotiating brief by the summer, he added. Nonetheless, despite progress already made, Serbia-Montenegro must continue to make an effort in order to reach full cooperation with the ICTY. As the Commission sees it, such cooperation remains a permanent requirement and a condition for allowing EU membership talks to begin. One must continue to make arrests and to pass those arrested onto the ICTY “until the very last person responsible for war crimes committed has been caught”, notably General Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, as it is impossible to contemplate membership if such problems have not been resolved, Olli Rehn explained. Before the tenth commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre in July this year, it is essential that these persons be handed over to justice, he said in the conviction that this is the only way to reconciliation and to allow the country to move forward along the road to EU membership.
Serbia-Montenegro's rate of progress towards the EU depends on its ability to carry out reforms undertaken - in the economic, judicial and public administration fields - and to improve its cooperation with the ICTY. “The ball is now in Serbia-Montenegro's court”, the Commissioner went on to say, feeling it might be possible to ask the Council for a negotiating brief for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement in the near future, that is “before the summer”. If the Council rapidly approves the brief, “we shall be able to envisage opening talks during the year (…) during November or December. I believe that this will mark considerable progress in the region of the Balkans”, Mr Rehn asserted.