Serbia makes 'historic' EU bid

(STOCKHOLM) - Serbia on Tuesday officially submitted an application to join the European Union, a move which the EU presidency called a historic new start for the Balkan nation.

Serb President Boris Tadic handed over the application to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Stockholm, declaring that the Serbia of the 1990s which became a pariah state under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic is a thing of the past.

Reinfeldt, who country holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation club, welcomed what he called "this very historic step."

"It marks a new beginning for Serbia, it reflects the strong determination of its government and it has widespread popular support in Serbia," Reinfeldt told reporters at a joint press conference.

The application came a decade after NATO's bombing of Serbia to stop the suppression of separatist ethnic Albanians in the breakaway province of Kosovo.

"We are now in the 10th year of democratic life, 10 years after the war ended, 10 years after our isolation ended. In these 10 years, our main goal has been to bring Serbia into the European Union," Tadic said.

The largest republic of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, still scarred by the wars of the 1990s, faces a long and bumpy road ahead to EU membership. The entry date is expected some time between 2014 and 2018.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said the timing would depend on "Serbia's ability to meet all the legal, democratic and economic conditions of EU membership," saying he expected them to be met "in the course of the coming decade."

A more optimistic Tadic meanwhile said the "D-day (for membership) is 2014."

Yet according to a European diplomat, support is for Serbia's membership is mixed at best. There is backing from Greece and Italy but several key members -- including Britain and the Netherlands -- are more reserved.

Among the obstacles are the status of Kosovo, which split from Serbia in February of last year, and the failure to catch the Bosnian Serb wartime military chief Ratko Mladic, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on genocide charges.

Cooperation with tribunal, which is based in The Hague, is seen as key to building deeper trust with Serbia's prospective EU partners.

The failure to track down the military chief prompted the Netherlands to block a key trade accord which was a step on the path to EU membership.

It only recently reversed this decision.

"We will continue continue our efforts to arrest all those who were indicted for war crimes, we will continue our efforts to find a stable and secure resolution to all the remaining issues in our regions," assured Tadic, saying Serbia was "working very hard... every day, every minute," to find Mladic and leader of the Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

Serbia still officially considers Kosovo a southern province, but the unilateral declaration of independence has been recognised by all but five of the 27 EU states.

Tadic reiterated that Belgrade would not recognise an independent Kosovo.

"Serbia has to become a pillar of stability in the region. That, we are facing with some challenges. We are going to solve those challenges, but it doesn't mean that we are going to recognise Kosovo's independence," he said.

"We are defending our legitimate national interests, but we are doing that by using only diplomatic and legal instruments. Serbia is the anchor of stability and peace in the Balkans."

Reinfeldt said Serbia's main challenges in joining the EU would be "completing reforms, finding war criminals," and Kosovo.

"But I think this is a very good day for Europe, that actually so close to all these historic events we are actually standing next to a Serbian president who has now applied for membership in the European Union," he said.