SAA - Political comments Serbia

In Serbian.
RTS 080430

- Serbia's pro-West president and the European Union on Tuesday reached a long-delayed agreement to forge closer ties, but harsh reaction among many Serbs immediately threatened both the pact and the leaders who backed it.
European countries hoped the agreement would boost democratic forces in Serbia, with national elections less than two weeks away. But the gesture may backfire.
The controversy highlights the power struggle in Serbia between moderates who want to be part of Europe and hard-line nationalists who maintain that Europe's support for the breakaway province of Kosovo makes integration untenable. The fight is intensifying ahead of the elections, in which bitterness over the loss of Kosovo may hand victory to nationalist radicals.
Signed at a brief ceremony in Luxembourg, the so-called Stabilization and Association Agreement enhances trade and political links and clears the way for Serbia to eventually be considered for membership in the European Union. However, it was immediately frozen pending Serbia's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, making Tuesday's signing largely symbolic.

- At the time the SAA [Stabilization and Association Agreement] was signed in Luxembourg, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that Boris Tadic's signature on Solana's pact is obligatory for Tadic's own party alone and that the new Serbian government and the Parliament will annul today signed pact at its first session.
"Boris Tadic will not embarrass Serbia with his signature on Solana's pact, but only himself", Kostunica said.

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