Brussels, 22/01/2007 (Agence Europe) -Although the Radical Party (SRS) remains the most highly represented political grouping within the Serbian parliament, the EU welcomed the legislative elections which were held on Sunday. Although the breakthrough of pro-European forces did not take place, the latter are now able to be part of the next government, to the satisfaction of the Twenty-Seven, who are pleased with the initial results. Meeting on Monday, the Foreign Affairs Ministers took the brighter view of things, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Olli Rehn stressing the country's European perspective, but without making any progress on the next steps of this process to be taken. In the view of the German minister, “the democratic forces came out of this very well”, and although the results of the vote contain no “recipe for the formation of the government”, there are options for the country to “continue on its European course”. The Commissioner with responsibility for Enlargement welcomed the fact that the “reformist democratic forces who share European values will be able to form a reformist and pro-European government”, “Serbia can certainly make progress towards the EU”. Mr Steinmeier and Mr Rehn have announced that they are to visit Belgrade in the next few weeks.
With around 28.5% of the votes, the Party of former para-military, Vojislav Seselj, may hope for around 80 seats of the total 250 in the Parliament, but the SRS does not have sufficient majority to govern alone. The Democratic Party (DS) of the reformist and pro-European President, Boris Tadic, came second with nearly 23% of the votes, followed by the Democratic Party of Serbia (PDS) of the Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who got 17% of the votes cast. If the DS had already ruled out all possibilities of this, Mr Kostunica's party did not take position on the subject, but an alliance with the ultra-nationalists of the SRS seems unlikely. The formation of a coalition will depend on the compromises to be reached by the DS and the PDS on the subjects which divide them, such as the Kosovo issue. On this point, the timing will be paramount as the UN Special Representative, Martti Ahtisaari, is to present his proposals on the statute, most probably early next month.
The EU may then take a positive stance on the resumption of negotiations for the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), which still depends on Belgrade's “full cooperation” with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and remains “the condition for the pace and conclusion of the negotiations”, Mr Rehn reiterated. The forthcoming General Affairs Council of February will devote a major political debate to the future of relations with Serbia, the Commissioner announced. (ab)