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Jasmina:
STRASBOURG, France, April 23 (Reuters) - The European Union should offer closer ties with Serbia only when Serbs themselves are ready for this, EU President Slovenia said on Wednesday.

Slovenian President Danilo Turk, whose country currently chairs EU business, said that could mean waiting until after a May 11 election, the outcome of which could hinge on public anger over the Western-backed secession of Kosovo in February.

"Whatever happens has to be based on respect of the Serbian readiness to deal with this issue. We have to take their elections seriously and we should not see the European element as decisive," he told Reuters.

"In principle, I think one has to respect the will of the people and if that means waiting until after the elections, then that's a fair conclusion to make," he said after giving a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The vast majority of EU states want to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Belgrade that would put it on the long road to eventual EU membership ahead of the polls, a move they hope would boost Serb moderates.

The Netherlands and Belgium insist Serbia must first show it is serious about bringing war crimes fugitives before a U.N. tribunal, but have said they could explore other ways to boost moderates before the polls.

EU foreign ministers will discuss what to do at a meeting in Luxembourg next Tuesday and Slovenia's Turk said it was still possible they could make some form of offer to Serbia.

However, EU diplomats said the Netherlands, home to the Hague-based war crimes court, was adamant there could be no SAA signing under present conditions and increasingly doubted next Tuesday's talks would yield results.



BACKFIRE

One envoy said it was possible that a statement to be agreed by the ministers would signal that the EU wanted to work quickly to open up visa-free travel to Serbs but would not go as far as giving a specific timetable for new arrangements.

Serb Foreign Minister Vuc Jeremic, who last month made an impassioned appeal to EU counterparts to sign the SAA without delay, has played down the significance of the step since.

Speaking after talks in Madrid on Tuesday, the pro-EU moderate described the SAA as essentially a technical and bureaucratic procedure and called the May 11 election the true test of whether Serbs wanted one day to join the EU.

Serbia's fragile government coalition of nationalists and pro-Western liberals collapsed in March over whether the country should pursue closer ties with the EU despite the bloc's support for the independence aspirations of Kosovo's Albanian majority.

Serbs remain ambivalent about a future in the EU. Survey results show 70 percent say they favour membership, but only 43 percent would pick the EU over Kosovo if asked to choose.

Polls show Kosovo riding high in voters' concerns along with unemployment and low living standards, all topics that traditionally provide the nationalist, populist Radical Party with plenty of rhetorical ammunition.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) thinktank concluded in a report released on Wednesday that any attempt by the EU to make concessions to Serbia in the hope of helping pro-EU parties win the May election could backfire and boost nationalists.

"Should the EU offer to sign an SAA ... it could have significant undesired consequences", it concluded.

(Additional reporting by Mark John in Brussels and Ellie Tzortzi in Belgrade) (Writing by Mark John; Editing by David Brunnstrom)


http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSL23714648

IslamIsCancer:
Stay the f out of the EU, those monsters took away your land and now you're joining them?

Zoran:
My words exactly, my friend.

AriseSouthAfrica:
I agree! Stay away from the EU!! Its not all the "promises" people believe.

Kerber:
After 2009,political structure and functionality is going to change in EU.Remember the agreement from Lisabon that NWO leaders of EU presented as the EU's new statute(when they couldn;t fool majority of the France and Holland on national referendums for the EU constitution)?That was the crossroad which has finally shown the path and true face of 4th Reich called EU.

Political system is going to be changed.Voting won't be the same.That means that each country is going to be represented with many votes depending of their population number.Also,no more VETO will be able to put if you want to as an independent member-state.So,this is an attack on the sovereignty and integrity of member-states.
They are attracting all possible European countries in the agreement called EU,and then the plan can start to fulfill.

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