BELGRADE - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the leaders of Serbia and Montenegro reached an accord Thursday to overcome a constitutional crisis in the loose union, a key condition for the Balkans country to move forward on its path towards EU membership.
The agreement foresees changes in the union's Constitutional Charter so the mandates of incumbent deputies in the federal parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, which expired in March, can be extended until new elections are held.
The parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, a EU-backed loose union that replaced former Yugoslavia in March 2003, was elected indirectly by member states for a two-year mandate. But leaders of Serbia and Montenegro have failed until now to agree when and how to elect a new one.
The breakthrough was necessary for Serbia and Montenegro to win a positive feasibility study from the European Commission, due next week, which then would open the doors for negotiations on a Stabilization and Association agreement with the EU, the first step towards full membership.
"In the last period of time we had to overcome a good number of difficulties to begin the process of getting Serbia and Montenegro closer to the EU," Solana told reporters after the accord was signed.
"I think that today we have overcome one that will be the last," he added.
Under the agreement, new deputies for the 126-seat parliament of Serbia and Montenegro will be elected separately in two republics, at the polls held for their parliaments.
Regular parliamentary elections in Montenegro are due in early 2006, and in Serbia in late 2007.
By reaching the accord "we have proved full commitment to our European goals and made another step forward towards European integrations and a positive feasibility study," said the union's president Svetozar Marovic.
Along with Solana and Marovic, the accord was signed by the presidents of Serbia and Montenegro, Boris Tadic and Filip Vujanovic, as well as by prime ministers of the two republics -- Serbian Vojislav Kostunica and Montenegrin Milo Djukanovic.
The timetable of new elections was a matter of dispute between Serbia and Montenegro, as Podgorica insisted the polls be held after a referendum on independence, allowed by the constitutional charter three years after the establishment of the union.
Under the 2002 EU-brokered accord, Serbia and Montenegro agreed to stick together in a new union called "Serbia and Montenegro" but give their respective goverments much wider powers of autonomy.
Under the deal, Montenegro's pro-independence leadership agreed to remain in the union with Belgrade until at least 2006, after which time it may opt out.
Serbia and Montenegro have been uneasy partners in what was left of Yugoslavia following the bloody breakup in the 1990s of the federation that once also included Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia.
Montenegro has a population of 650,000, compared to Serbia's eight million.
04/07/2005 18:17 GMT