Serbia filed its application to join the European Union, clearing the latest in a line of hurdles that may still delay its accession for years as it seeks to erase a reputation tarnished by the civil wars of the 1990s.
The Balkan nation may not find it easy to become a member of the EU, which expanded eastward by embracing 12 mainly post- communist members since 2004. Croatia, which has worked on its application for several years, has concluded talks in just 17 of 35 policy areas and may take another two years or more to wrap up entry.
Serbia has struggled to rebuild its reputation and economy following the wars that broke out during the fissure of Yugoslavia. Before it can complete membership talks, it needs to arrest and extradite Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb wartime commander, to the UN war crimes court in the Netherlands to stand trial for genocide during the 1992-1995 war and the 1995 killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica.
“There is a certain fatigue on the extension of the EU that you can feel,” said Mark Almond, a history lecturer at Oxford University’s Oriel College. The EU will move at a slower pace as it digests future members, especially those from the east, he said. The bloc will probably be “stricter” in applying membership criteria to Serbia and it will be “very easy for the EU to say when talks get tricky that you didn’t catch Mladic yet,” Almond said.
Bloomberg
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