Following the prime minister’s message to Brussels that it needs to choose between signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU or sending a mission to Kosovo, the director of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights said that neither Koštunica nor those around him actually wanted Serbia to join the EU.
“It’s an expression of the view that we do not belong there, and that Serbia’s traditional allies are not present there.”
Following an opinion poll that showed that 70 percent of the population supported EU membership, said Dimitrejević, those who opposed EU entry now had to concoct reasons.
According to the NGO director, the first of these was the NATO bombing, as in Serbia it was much easier to attack NATO than the EU, as the military alliance had attacked Serbia.
“The agreement we’re now signing with the EU is purely commercial, which will improve our economic circumstances, and, because of the wish of the people, one cannot directly oppose it, but a situation can be created where we don’t join the EU,“ he explained.
In Dimitrejević’s opinion, that situation is now artificial, inasmuch as they wish to show that, in the post-initialing period, the EU is doing something to damage Serbia territorial integrity, which is why Belgrade should refuse to sign the SAA.
The NGO director believes that undefined borders are not a reason to halt the process of European integration, as “the state can enter international organizations, even without its borders being exactly determined.“
In this respect, he points to the examples of Cyprus who entered the EU without defined borders, and Albania, whose frontiers had not been established when it was accepted into the League of Nations.
“These are neither legal reasons to reject membership, nor are they practical, as I don’t know why it would be any worse for an EU team to govern Kosovo than an American one,“ Dimitrejević added.
The NGO director feels that it is very possible that once the agreement has been signed, parliament may then question its ratification.
Commenting on the EU’s reaction to the prime minister’s statements, he said that “Brussels won’t let herself be provoked that easily, as it has her reasons for wanting Serbia in the EU.”
“However, that desire isn’t as great as we’d like to think in our own media, who believe that the EU is dying for us to enter, and will, as a result, make enormous concessions to us with that aim in mind.”
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=01&dd=07&nav_id=46736
JPTF 7/01/2008
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário