Serbia's EU bid

Kosovo won't be a normal state without Serbia's aproval?
Actually Serbia has nothing to decide, they know and could decide in 1999 and 1990-1999 in balkans when they went around all its neighbours and started wars killing civilians.
Kosovo with or without Serbia's aproval will move on , Serbia has no institution in Kosovo.

Great decision. We have avoided a situation where we would have handed over more money that we cannot afford for useless projects in a country that has nothing to contribute.

Meanwhile, Serbia has a talent to ward off its few remaining friends in the Balkans:

Two of the leaders of Romanian communities in Timoc Valley and Vojvodina were the targets of armed attacks only a few hours apart. Unidentified individuals fired several times on the two leaders’ houses, sending a very clear message: “If you don’t calm down, next time we will shoot to kill.”

TJ and the Economist have been wrong so many times, when it comes to the western Balkans and Serbia in particular. First it was said that Serbia missed a huge opportunity to let Kosovo go and get on the fast lane into the EU, then Serbia will get welcomed into the "family of European nations" once the "warcriminals" are extradited, and so on and so forth. Everything I read here is pretty much hearsay, peppered with anecdotal evidence about the brutality of serbian politics. On that note: how many american presidents have been killed in office? Give me a break. Be it as it is, if indeed Tadic has started to focus on his job, i.e. the running and sorting out of Serbia, he is to be congratulated. In any case, Kosovo will never be a "normal state" without Serbia's approval. And Serbia's western "friends and partners" are well advised to not underestimate our stubborness and willingness for sacrifice. We have much more skin in this game than all the eurocrats and the western powers combined. With so much on their plate, it is inevitable that they will take their eyes off the ball at some point. It would be interesting to see what happens then. Perhaps TJ will let us know next week?

LOL. I like the comment about the man's impeccable reading taste. I really like this blog, it has a certain vibe about it that the rest of the Economist doesn't share. Perhaps it's the fact that it's a blog, or perhaps it's the authors themselves. Either way, very good.

Serbia is the only country in Europe which has never answered for its war crimes or crimes in general.Germany started WW1/2 but they answered for all the crimes they did (at least if its worth) and payed even the destruction of buildings around of europe.
Serbia started wars in Slovenia,Croatia,Bosnia,Kosovo and the actual problem Kosovo were murdered more than 13.000 people and 3000 lost by serbian police and army. All the wars they still didnt arrest all the war criminals and they think only arresting mladic we will accept them in EU. i dont want to pay taxes for unresponsible country like serbia,they're not ready to participate in friendship among their neighbours.they hate croatia,kosovo,bosnia,hungary. why are they making a bid to join EU?

Dacic is correct, and there is no 'simpler explanation'; yes German 'peacekeepers' have been injured, precisely as clashes hae occurred due to KFOR supporting breakaway authorities in Pristina to regain territories in the North.

Serbs have all the legitimacy to fight against those who wish to violate SC 1244.

It is really a bizarre situation that the population is fighting for preservation of the SC resolution, as opposed to 'peacekeepes' that were sent there to do so in the first place. On the contrary, it is those 'peacekeepers' that do violate it.

And 'EU' requirements are in the same line - Serbia is asked to allow Kosovo be represented in regional forums as independent state, and not as a territory under SC1244 administration.

EU asks Serbia to violate UN SC resolution!

Very interesting behavior on the international plane, and very illustrative of the 'EU'.

No wonder that someone (Dacic) is at least recognizing this (or shall I say has guts to recognize it), and no wonder that Serbian people no longer wish to join the EU - in fact, it is only the Tadic puppet regime that wishes to do so, wrongfully counting this would secure them reelection.

The government is announcing a new diplomatic offensive to persuade the members of the international community (including Russia and China, but excluding Prishtina, of course) to hold a grand session to solve "the Kosovo problem." (Actually, it's probably time to start calling it "the Serbia problem.") Until this is solved, they warn, there will never be stability in the Balkans - a not-so-subtle threat? This new initiative will allow them to argue that they can hardly be expected to change their treatment of Kosovo before the EU's March deadline, since they have to wait for the outcome of the new international negotiations, which might just return Kosovo to them as their southern province. At the very least, even if they don't get the international conference or a pass on the EU requirements because of it, they'll have a new complaint of unfair treatment to use to explain their failure in the election campaign. Meanwhile, the people on the barricades will have their nice new Russian tents and generators to help them through the winter while they do their best to prevent any return to normal life in the north of Kosovo.

The conditions for Serbia were clear. She will not be even considered for candidacy until it delivers war criminals. Once arrested, Serbia had to tackle the actual work on EU integration. The reforms and policies to be in line with Eu legislation and rules so one is fit for candidacy. Well, one of those rules say that one has to engage and be nice to neighbors, and to vast majority of EU members Kosovo is a neighbor of Serbia. So, no one is asking for Serbia to recognize Kosovo, but EU is asking for Serbia to acknowledge and interact with Kosovo, in the model of two Germanies

Originally the conditions for Serbia's candidacy were that all the Hague war criminals are arrested. After Serbia has done that in June, all of the sudden, despite talks between Belgrade and Pristina, in JULY Thaci sends Kosovo special police to the north of Kosovo and causes extremist Serbs there to pull up barricades. Those barricades are still there despite author arguing the opposite, showing that the north of Kosovo is in fact a black hole with leaders who are members of Serbian nationalist parties, and Belgrade government can only have limited control over them, but their allegiance lays with their nationalist leaders who would like oh so much that Tadic loses both the candidacy bid and the elections.

Although all these years it was explicitly said Kosovo isn't a condition for candidacy (b92.net -> “kosovo eu candidacy” search), miraculously and overnight it becomes one.

It sounds a bit weak of an argument to hide behind the fact that 5 EU countries haven't recognized Kosovo, when it's a public secret that Germany is running pretty much everything in the EU right now.

EU (Germany) has been so hypocritical and thus so successful in effectively discrediting any kind of anti-nationalist government of Serbia that sometimes I wish the nationalists win the election again, and then Mrs Merkel, happy negotiations. Or was this the plan all along?

I won't be commenting any further. Mr Medic, please fire up the troll engine...

Originally the conditions for Serbia's candidacy were that all the Hague war criminals are arrested. After Serbia has done that in June, all of the sudden, despite talks between Belgrade and Pristina, in JULY Thaci sends Kosovo special police to the north of Kosovo and causes extremist Serbs there to pull up barricades. Those barricades are still there despite author arguing the opposite, showing that the north of Kosovo is in fact a black hole with leaders who are members of Serbian nationalist parties, and Belgrade government can only have limited control over them, but their allegiance lays with their nationalist leaders who would like oh so much that Tadic loses both the candidacy bid and the elections.

Although all these years it was explicitly said Kosovo isn't a condition for candidacy (b92.net -> “kosovo eu candidacy” search), miraculously and overnight it becomes one.

It sounds a bit weak of an argument to hide behind the fact that 5 EU countries haven't recognized Kosovo, when it's a public secret that Germany is running pretty much everything in the EU right now.

EU (Germany) has been so hypocritical and thus so successful in effectively discrediting any kind of anti-nationalist government of Serbia that sometimes I wish the nationalists win the election again, and then Mrs Merkel, happy negotiations. Or was this the plan all along?

I won't be commenting any further. Mr Medic, please fire up the troll engine