Thursday, February 16, 2012

Serbia

EU Links Serbia's 'Strategic Relations' To Kosovo

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (file photo) (epa)

BRUSSELS, July 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, told visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic in Brussels today that Serbia cannot join the EU if the standoff over the future status of Kosovo is not resolved.

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July 06, 2007

"We are not linking -- I want to make it clear -- we are not linking the [ongoing] Stabilization and Association Agreement negotiations with Kosovo," Barroso said. "But when we think about strategic relations between Serbia and Europe [then], of course, if this issue is not solved, it will create a lot of problems. This is obvious. We will not be able to achieve what is, I think, our strategic goal, [which] is to have, one day, Serbia as a full member of the European Union."

The EU backs a plan that would give the breakaway Serbian province supervised independence. Tadic today repeated Serbia will not accept Kosovo's independence.

EU Expands Eastward

To view RFE/RL's archive of coverage related to EU expansion, click here .

'Outsider' Jolie Puts Bosnia's War Story On World Stage

Angelina Jolie's new film about the Bosnian war, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" was screened in Sarajevo on February 14 before thousands of local residents and war survivors. Afterward, Jolie said she was "terrified" while making the film because the war was such a "painful" time in Bosnia's history. More

"The main impression...after being 15 minutes in her presence is that she is not frightened," a colleague says of Natasa Kandic (above).

The Truth-Teller: Natasa Kandic, Urging Serbs To Face The Past

More than a decade has passed since the end of the Balkan wars, where international observers say ethnic Serb fighters were responsible for the bulk of atrocities in the region, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. But despite the handover of major war-crimes suspects like Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Belgrade remains reluctant to face the sins of the past. Lawyer Natasa Kandic has built an unpopular and often dangerous career out of pushing her country to face the truth about its history. More

Zoran Laketa lost his father and brother in the war

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, One Family, Three Armies, And A Lost Generation

Zoran Laketa knows what it's like to fire a gun and wonder if the soldier on the other side of the front line just might be his brother. Or his father. More