SERBIA APPLIES TO JOIN EU
Baku, December 23 (AZERTAC). Serbia is to submit a formal application on Tuesday to join the European Union`s 27-nation bloc, BBC reports.
President Boris Tadic will fly to Stockholm, where he will submit the application to Swedish Prime Minster Fredrik Reinfeldt.
The EU recently unfroze a free trade agreement with Belgrade.
But Serbia still has to cross a major hurdle, the capture of two remaining war fugitives, before membership negotiations will begin in earnest.
Serbia feels it has built up a certain momentum on its path to the EU in the past few weeks.
An important trade pact with the bloc has now come into force and Serbs were recently granted visa-free travel to most EU countries.
But Serbia`s attempts to gain membership have been hampered by concerns, particularly in the Netherlands, over its failure to capture the two remaining war fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague.
Chief among them is the former Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic.
Earlier this month the UN`s chief war crimes prosecutor said Serbia`s co-operation with ICTY was "progressing".
However, in his report to the UN, Serge Brammertz said Serbia must continue searching for both Gen Mladic and Goran Hadzic, who is wanted for war crimes in Croatia.
Belgrade is now pinning its hopes on the next report by the chief prosecutor, expected in June.
If that proves a positive assessment of Serbia`s hunt for the fugitives, the Dutch may be persuaded to soften and allow the next stage of the application process to move forward.
The BBC`s Mark Lowen, in Belgrade, says that a long road lies ahead: it`s likely to take at least four years before the hand of membership extends to Serbia.
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