Serbia could become EU candidate by next year: commissioner

BRUSSELS - Serbia could become a candidate for European Union membership as soon as next year if it commits to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes court, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Tuesday.
Rehn said that, after discussions with officials at the United Nations tribunal, the EU had set four main benchmarks which the new government in Belgrade would have to meet for talks on closer ties to resume.
"Achieving candidate status in 2008 is ambitious but under the best circumstances it can be possible," he told reporters, after talks with visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic.
The EU froze a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Belgrade last May chiefly over its failure to surrender to the tribunal the former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, believed to be hiding in Serbia.
These talks are a first step for Balkan countries to join the EU.
To encourage the pro-democracy forces in Serbia attempting to form a government following a general election on January 21, the bloc has slightly softened its stance on the criteria for cooperation with the UN court.
Rehn said Serbia has the resources to quickly finish the SAA talks, which would set it up to try to qualify for membership candidacy status in 2008.
"If we can resume the talks on the SAA in course of this spring, which depends mostly on the new goverment of Serbia, then it will take a few months to conclude the technical negotiations," he said.
He said it would also take "a few months to conclude the signature, which means that it is possible to conclude the SAA this autumn."