The Swedish Presidency of the EU is expecting a positive report from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, at the UN Security Council, on 3 December, on the subject of Serbia’s cooperation. This could lead to the Netherlands lifting its veto, at the General Affairs Council (GAC) on 7 December, to the interim implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

According to a draft of the Council’s conclusions seen by Europolitics,the GAC “notes that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTY is satisfied with the current level of efforts undertaken by Serbia’s authorities in their cooperation and insists that Serbia maintain these efforts in order to achieve additional positive results. Recalling the Council conclusions of April 29, 2008, ministers agreed that the Union will start implementing the interim agreement”. This phrase remains in brackets in the text, which signifies that it has not yet received the backing of all 27 member states and that it will be discussed anew after Brammertz’s conclusions.

With the signature of the SAA, on 29 April 2008, the EU had decided that the interim implementation (the application of the commercial section of the SAA while waiting for its ratification by the 27 member states) should be applied “as soon as the Council decides Serbia is cooperating totally with the ICTY”. Until now, the Netherlands’ opinion was that the cooperation would be proven by the arrest of the two remaining men accused by the ICTY, the Bosnian Serb former military chief Ratko Mladic and wartime Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic. But they could change their position if Brammertz states that Serbia is doing all it can to arrest them.

“Let us first see Mr Brammertz’s report,” a Dutch diplomat told Europolitics.“If the report is very positive, it would be fair to re-examine our policy,” he added. The Netherlands, however, remains determined to “maintain continued pressure” on Belgrade to arrest the two fugitives.

On the other hand, the Swedish Presidency does not expect Brammertz’s report to be very positive on Croatia. According to the draft conclusions, “the chief prosecutor of the ICTY has not been able to report substantial progress on the issues of access to documents,” which could be used in the Hague cases against three former Croatian Generals, Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac. The Council remains cautious on a conclusion of the accession negotiations in 2010, underlining that Zagreb must also record “significant improvements” in the areas of justice, public administration and fighting corruption.

The draft conclusions do not currently touch on the opening of negotiations for the accession of Macedonia. The Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, said, on 4 December, that “no progress” had been made on the name of his country after a meeting with his Greek counterpart, George Papandreou. Greece has reiterated at every opportunity that it would veto the opening of negotiations if this question was not resolved. Finally, the Council will return to the question of Iceland’s accession negotiations in “early 2010,” once the Commission has given its opinion on Reykjavik’s candidature.

End of visa restrictions 

The Serbs, like the Macedonians or Montenegrins, received an early ‘Christmas present’, on 30 November, with the Council’s decision to exempt them from visas to enter the Schengen area, from 19 December. The member states also adopted a proposal made by the Commission in July. «It is a big day for the Serbian citizens. We have a new generation that has not been abroad,» underlined Serbian President Boris Tadic. However, this does not apply to Albania and Bosnia at this stage, because they have not yet put in place biometric passports. The Commission will re-evaluate these two countries between December 2009 and February 2010. Residents of Kosovo, whether Serbian or Albanian, will still need to apply for a visa.