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
Topic: Wait till Serbia ready for EU ties-EU Presidency (Read 3926 times)