FM Rupel Says EU Foreign Ministers Worried Over Serbia

Luxembourg, 17 October

EU foreign ministers have discussed the relationship between Serbia and the bloc, showing "much concern alongside their support for a democratic Serbia, governed by democratic parties," Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said at the sidelines of the meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Rupel stressed that his appearance at the ministerial was, alongside Italy's Massimo D'Alema, perhaps "the most rooting in the sense that the EU should be more lenient towards Serbia and consider its importance for the stability in the Balkans".
According to Rupel, the ministers agreed that the Balkan state's "stability and its European prospects" are their problem, while their views disagreed only regarding the conditions that Serbia has to meet before resuming talks with the EU.
Rupel also said that "big debates are over" and that the EU was getting to a point at which problems would require practical solutions. He warned that European prospects for Serbia were of key importance for the stability in the Balkans.
Slovenia's position in the debate was more "strategic", as the discussion touched on the country with which "Slovenia has many ties and is bound by long-term friendship and mutual understanding," Rupel added.
However, Slovenia's proposals remained just proposals, as the ministers decided that the EU would not continue the talks until Serbia proved its full cooperation with the Hague tribunal in the search for suspected war criminal General Ratko Mladic.
The EU halted Stabilisation and Association Agreement talks with Serbia earlier in the year.
Rupel also stressed the importance of facing and dealing with the past regarding Serbia's restive province of Kosovo.
The ministers also supported the endeavours of UN special emissary for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari who insists that the solution for the province could be reached before the end of the year.

FM Rupel Says EU Foreign Ministers Worried Over Serbia

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