The European Commission still hopes that member countries will forward it Serbia's membership application in October so that it can start drafting an opinion, and full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal remains a condition throughout Serbia's road to the European Union, a spokesperson for the enlargement commissioner said in Brussels on Tuesday.
Spokeswoman Angela Filote was responding to the question why Commissioner Stefan Fuele did not mention full cooperation with the tribunal as a prerequisite for Belgrade's drawing closer to the EU in his address to the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Fuele's statement in Belgrade last Friday, that he hoped that the Council of the EU would give the green light to the Commission to start drawing up an opinion on Serbia's application, did not prejudge a decision, said Filote.
That's just a hope. Of course we are not prejudging the discussion at the Council, but we hope that the Commission will get the green light from member countries to start drafting an opinion, she said.
After the EU agreed with Belgrade a resolution on Kosovo, which the UN General Assembly passed on September 10, most EU countries showed willingness to send Serbia's membership application, submitted last December, to the European Commission.
Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country chairs the EU in the second half of this year, said earlier this month that the agenda of the October 26 meeting of EU foreign ministers would address this matter.
Vanackere said many EU countries expressed a wish to reward Serbian President Boris Tadic's efforts regarding the Kosovo resolution.
However, sending the application to the Commission might be hampered by the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, who said in The Hague yesterday that Serbia was not cooperating enough with his office and that he was not satisfied with Serbia's cooperation in the tracing of fugitives Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.
