Word: membership
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Although conditions have improved drastically since the Kosovo War in 1998-9, it is clear that the stabilizing force of EU membership is the only way to normalize relations between the two countries. The EU must immediately take a strong stand in favor of admitting the Balkan nations, including eventually Serbia and Kosovo, if the scars from centuries of ethnic and political conflict in the region are ever to be healed...
...While Serbia has traditionally been closer diplomatically to Russia than to the West, its current leadership is pro-Western and has announced its desire to apply for EU membership in the first half of 2009. The Serbian populace would almost certainly look more favorably on their pro-Western governing coalition if joining the EU becomes a more realistic goal...
...that it arrest Ratko Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general who is accused of carrying out the massacre at Srebrenica during the 1992-5 Bosnian war. The EU has made it clear that Mladic’s capture will be one of the conditions of Serbia’s membership...
...While neither state will be able to join the EU in the near future, Brussels should make it clear to both Belgrade and Pristina that membership is a very real possibility for both—assuming, of course, that they fulfill all the requirements of membership in the near future. This would have major implications for regional stability: Serbia would be discouraged from trying to reclaim Kosovo by force because of the consequences such an action would have for its EU membership...
...Integrating Serbia and Kosovo into the EU can only remain a far-off prospect until Brussels finishes the accession processes of the more stable Balkan nations that are ready, or close to being ready, for membership. However, the bids of several countries in the region are becoming unnecessarily protracted, leading one to wonder whether the EU’s drive to incorporate the former Yugoslav states will ever be completed...