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Serbia will submit EU candidacy request
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Serbia plans to officially submit its European Union (EU) candidacy request by the end of the year, according to Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. "In an interview for the European Parliament's official website, Jeremic said that, according to the latest polls, 70 per cent of the [sic] Serbia's population favours joining the EU. 'It's very difficult to imagine a stable, peaceful and prosperous part of Europe that has a big black hole right in it. I am an optimist and I hope the entire Western Balkans is going to accede to the EU in this generation'" (http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/23567/). Belgrade hopes to gain full membership in five to seven years from now.
Regarding the Kosovo issue and Serbia's EU integration, Jeremic has stated that Serbia is maintaining a "... 'strict separation between EU integration and determining the future status of Kosovo. This is the official policy of Serbia and the official policy of the EU. It is very important we keep it this way.'" 22 out of 27 EU member states have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, as do the three current EU canidate states (Croatia, Macedonia, and Turkey). Serbia has vowed to never recognize Kosovo's independence, and still considers it an integral part of Serbia.
EU member the Netherlands will not approve Serbia's bid to join the bloc until it hands over Bosnian-Serb war criminal General Ratko Mladic -- commander of the Army of Republika Srpska during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, and Croatian-Serb Goran Hadzic -- the leader of the Serbian Republic of Krajina -- to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). 400 Dutch United Nations peacekeepers were overrun in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, a UN-declared "safe area," by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under Mladic who then proceeded to kill 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian-Muslim) men and boys in July 1995. Serbian President Boris Tadic has said that Serbia is doing everything it can to hunt down Mladic and turn him over to the ICTY. Srebrenica is now located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Mladic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes: two counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity, three counts of violations of the laws and customs of war, and one count of grave violations of the Geneva Conventions (http://www.icty.org/).
(Flag of the European Union pictured above).
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