Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
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Post by Bozur on Mar 5, 2008 12:45:04 GMT -5
EU calls on Serbia to commit to EuropeWed Mar 5, 2008 9:52am EST By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union urged Serbia on Wednesday to make clear it saw its future with Europe and laid out incentives on visas, education and transport to try to boost the bloc's image in the Balkans. The appeal came after the party of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called for a rejection of ties with the EU until the bloc withdraws its backing for an independent Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia last month. The EU sees the long-term accession of Balkans states, among them Serbia, as key to the stability of southeastern Europe. But the row with Belgrade over Kosovo has raised concerns that Serbia could shun the EU and turn towards Russia in future. EU Enlargement Commission Olli Rehn told a news conference the EU wanted to nurture ties with Belgrade if it was willing. "Certain recent statements in Belgrade to pull back from EU integration unfortunately seem to rule this out," he said. "We ask the Serbian government to reaffirm its commitment to closer ties with the EU ... We are ready to move on once Serbia is ready to do the same," he added, saying there was a "silent majority" of Serbs who backed eventual EU membership. In a move aimed at consolidating what the EU sees as strong public support for EU entry in the Western Balkans, Rehn made proposals for eventual phasing out of EU visa requirements, doubling scholarships to the bloc and boosting transport links. REFERENDUM?The Serb parliament is expected to adopt a resolution within days saying further steps towards Serbia's accession to the EU can take place only if the bloc acts to "clearly and unequivocally affirm the entirety of Serbia's territory". The draft is backed by Kostunica's party and the Socialists of late President Slobodan Milosevic, who together hold 144 of the assembly's 250 seats. Serbia's parliament speaker Oliver Dulic was quoted in local media on Wednesday as saying the ruling coalition was so divided on the EU that a referendum might be needed on whether Serbia should pursue the distant goal of EU membership. Kostunica attacked the EU for concluding in its policy paper that Kosovo has "a clear and tangible EU perspective" while failing "to acknowledge that Serbia has annulled Kosovo's declaration of independence". He said Serbia needed to have a clear answer as to whether any future deals with the EU see Serbia as "a whole country", with Kosovo, or "a crippled state", without it. Belgrade and its ally Russia have branded as illegal the 2,000-strong EU police supervisory and administration mission that is due to take over from the United Nations in Kosovo. NATO, which has 16,000 peacekeepers in the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian territory, has also said it wants to advance ties with Belgrade, but no move is expected at an alliance summit in April. Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia, holder of the EU presidency, said he saw no early rapprochement with Serbia. "Regarding latest decisions and political resolutions it is clear that some time will pass before Serbia will again be able to concentrate fully on ensuring European perspective but the EU door is open to Serbia," he told a news conference in Ljubljana. Serbia has initialed a pre-membership Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), but the EU has blocked signing until Belgrade delivers remaining war crimes suspects. Kostunica rejected a lesser pact the EU offered in January. The Commission paper said Croatia, which hopes to join the EU next year, still needed to make progress in reforms and address a fishing row with EU states. It urged more progress from Macedonia and Albania without spelling out a start date for accession talks, and reaffirmed Bosnia could sign its SAA soon if it reformed its police. (Additional reporting by Marja Novak in Ljubljana and Mark John in Brussels)www.reuters.com/
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Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
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Post by Bozur on Mar 5, 2008 12:50:50 GMT -5
1st they occupy territory of a sovereign country 2nd they create a precedent with Kosovo 3rd they condition Serbia's road to EU with Kosovo recognition 4th now they address Serbia to resume its road towards EU
Serbia perhaps has no option but to turn towards Russia and Asia as EU and US have clearly shown to be its antagonists not to say even enemies.
EU is bound to have rifts within it sometime in the future regardless as how long will other smaller countries there accept its subservient position versus Germany and France.
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Post by radovic on Mar 5, 2008 12:55:50 GMT -5
I suggest the EU should then be committed to Europe, or better yet it's own member states. I mean look at this statement from David Milliband (Uk Foreign Minister): news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7095657.stmEU 'should expand beyond Europe' Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries. Mr Miliband urged the EU to use "soft and hard power" He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability. In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world. It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism. He said the EU must "keep our promises to Turkey", adding: "If we fail.... it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west. "Beyond that we must keep the door open, retaining the incentive for change and the prospect of membership provides." Mr Miliband made his address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where Baroness Thatcher delivered her famous warning against "some sort of identikit European personality" almost exactly two decades ago in September 1988. US 'only superpower' Mr Miliband said that speech had been "haunted by demons - a European superstate bringing in socialism by the back door". But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower." Instead he said the EU had the chance to be a "model power" which could develop shared values between countries. "As a club that countries want to join, it can persuade countries to play by the rules, and set global standards. In the way it dispenses its responsibilities around the world, it can be a role model that others follow." Extremism and insecurity Mr Miliband said new threats, like protectionism, religious extremism, energy insecurity, rogue and failing states and climate change provided a new "raison d'etre" for the EU. He outlined four principles for the "next generation" of Europe, for it to remain open to "trade, ideas and investment", to develop shared institutions to overcome religious and cultural divides, to prevent conflict by championing international law and human rights in and outside Europe, and to become a "low carbon power". He said a successful EU must be prepared to "deploy soft and hard power to promote democracy and tackle conflict beyond its borders". He said the goal "must be a multilateral free-trade zone around our periphery". This would be a "version of the European Free Trade Association that could gradually bring the countries of the Mahgreb, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in line with the single market, not as an alternative to membership, but potentially as a step towards it". And the EU should extend military support to places like Darfur, he argued, to help solve problems of unwanted migration. 'Embarrassing' He also said European nations had to "improve their capabilities". "It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time," he said. "European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there." Long-term regulations were needed to phase out carbon emissions in key areas - by reducing vehicle emissions and work towards "a zero-emission vehicle standard across Europe". He said that by 2020, all new coal-fired power stations must be fitted with "carbon capture and storage". In a reference to the failed EU Constitution, he said: "The constitutional debate shows that people don't want major institutional upheaval. Unanimity is slow but it respects national identities." But his Conservative counterpart William Hague said Mr Miliband and his colleagues were "ramming that constitution through under a new name and refusing to give voters a say at an election or a referendum" - a reference to the EU Reform treaty. "The fact is that if the renamed constitution goes through we will have a more inward-looking Europe," said Mr Hague. "The treaty's clauses will make the EU more protectionist and less competitive and give the EU more power to interfere with crucial areas like our criminal justice system."
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Post by radovic on Mar 5, 2008 12:57:49 GMT -5
^ Or better yet, look at the following statements made by Sarkozy. The French president who did alot of EU/continentalism bashing to get people to vote for him instead of Le Pen.
Sarkozy's proposal for Mediterranean bloc makes waves By Katrin Bennhold Published: May 10, 2007
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PARIS: A proposal by Nicolas Sarkozy to gather the European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries of the strategic Mediterranean rim into an economic community along the lines of the early European Union has begun making waves even before the president-elect takes office.
The initiative, outlined by Sarkozy in a campaign speech in February, went largely unnoticed until he repeated it in his electoral victory address Sunday evening. Plans are still being drawn up, Sarkozy's aides said Thursday, but even at this early stage the proposal has cascading implications for the region.
Such a union, even if primarily economic, would necessarily involve the member countries in discussions of controversial issues like Turkish membership in the European Union and illegal immigration via North Africa. It would bring Israel and its Arab neighbors into a new assembly that Sarkozy apparently hopes could tackle the intractable problem of Middle East peace.
Initial reactions have ranged from enthusiasm in Spain to cautious approval in Israel to outrage in Turkey, which sees the proposal as a ploy to keep it out of the European Union.
"This cannot be an alternative to Turkish membership in the EU," Egeman Bagis, the chief foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, said in a telephone interview.
Related Articles Chirac sets apologetic example for Sarkozy at slavery commemoration Today in Europe Ethnic Albanians chart Kosovo pathAngry about Kosovo, Serbian nationalist urges unity toward EUSpain cools to its wave of immigrants "Every country that started membership negotiations with the EU has completed them," he continued. "If Turkey becomes the only exception, it would send a very bad message to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims."
The "Turkish problem" is clearly in Sarkozy's sights. He campaigned on a platform of keeping Turkey out of the EU, maintaining that the large Muslim nation is part of Asia Minor, not Europe.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also on Sarkozy's mind. In his speech Sunday, he described the Mediterranean as the region "where everything is being played out." He added: "We must surmount all the hatreds to make space for a great dream of peace and civilization."
The notion of regional cooperation in the Mediterranean is ambitious but more timely than ever, diplomats and foreign policy observers said. North Africa is an important transit route for illegal immigrants heading for Europe. The site of resurgent Islamic terrorism, it is home to substantial natural gas reserves.
Sarkozy, who takes office next week, has said that he wants the countries ringing the Mediterranean - Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - to form a council and hold regular summit meetings under a rotating presidency.
He wants to anchor regional cooperation in the fields of energy, security, counter-terrorism and immigration on a trade agreement, and create a Mediterranean Investment Bank, modeled on the European Investment Bank, that would help develop the economies on the eastern and southern edge of the region. He has offered French expertise on nuclear energy in return for access to North Africa's gas reserves.
"The time has come to build together a Mediterranean Union that will be the bridge between Europe and Africa," Sarkozy said in his victory speech Sunday.
In a campaign speech in the port city of Toulon in February, he said: "The Mediterranean is a key to our influence in the world. It's also a key for Islam that is torn between modernity and fundamentalism."
A Mediterranean Union would work closely with the European Union and might eventually form joint institutions with the 27-nation bloc. But it would be a separate organization, Sarkozy said in the Toulon speech.
In Spain, Juan Prat, ambassador at large for Mediterranean affairs, praised the proposal as a way to deal more effectively with new risks like immigration, terrorism and climate change.
"We are ready to work with him on this because we need to enhance the European-Mediterranean partnership," he said in a telephone interview.
In Israel, where Sarkozy's Toulon speech was circulated in diplomatic circles, the reaction was also positive. When Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres called Sarkozy on Monday to congratulate him on his election victory, he said that the idea of a Mediterranean Union was "very important" and that he was interested in discussing it further, diplomatic sources said.
A senior Israeli diplomat, who declined to be identified, said: "My feeling is that there is every reason to believe that Israel would be interested in this because it gives us another opportunity to have a dialogue with countries that we sometimes have difficulties holding a dialogue with."
The idea of a Mediterranean dialogue is not new. In 1995, the European Union launched the so-called Barcelona process, a framework for regular meetings among the union's members and other countries ringing the Mediterranean.
But where most past initiatives were ineffective - and where Sarkozy's proposal is different - is that they involved all of the EU. His plan involves only the countries with an immediate coastline and interest in closer cooperation.
As one French diplomat put it: "Germany cares about the east, we care about the south. That should not stop either of us from taking targeted initiatives."
International affairs experts applauded the initiative as a sound strategy but expressed skepticism about its feasibility in the near future.
"When I saw his proposal my eyes perked up. I think it is a good idea," said John Kornblum, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany who viewed the proposal mainly as an effort to curb illegal immigration and likened it to the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. "It's a little bit like Nafta: better to give them jobs where they are rather than having them come across the border."
But Kornblum also expressed skepticism about striking a collective agreement with Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, a volatile Algerian government and Morocco's monarchy. "The EU is based on civilized, democratic governments," he said, "and it still took a lot of time."
A former French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, one of Sarkozy's campaign advisers, said the first step would be to build the foundations for a common market that is "parallel to and coordinated with" the European Union's single market.
"Nicolas Sarkozy sees this region as containing a lot of risks," Barnier said. "Building economic links could help avoid conflicts."
The genius of the EU's founders "was to give countries that had a history of fighting each other an incentive for peace," Barnier said. "The deeper your economic integration, the greater your interest not to start a war."
Victoria Burnett contributed from Madrid and Peter Kiefer contributed from Rome.
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 5, 2008 17:52:16 GMT -5
"Serbia perhaps has no option but to turn towards Russia and Asia as EU and US have clearly shown to be its antagonists not to say even enemies."
The kosovo issue is a blessing for serbia because it has clearly shown who are its friends in all of this.
Its no surprise, next your going to see the EU apply some sort of economic sting towards serbia, but stuff the EU, better Asia or Russia.
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 5, 2008 17:53:42 GMT -5
"EU is bound to have rifts within it sometime in the future regardless as how long will other smaller countries there accept its subservient position versus Germany and France."
I don't like it because Germany is the centre stage.
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Fender
Commanding Moderator
Hardarse
Posts: 2,653
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Post by Fender on Mar 5, 2008 22:12:36 GMT -5
They are desperate for Serbia to join. Imagine not having any control over that gas pipeline.
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Post by tripwire on Mar 5, 2008 22:22:26 GMT -5
hehehe...gas pipeline? Please, it could easily be shut off if Serbs don't pay their bills, or if Serbs piss of Bulgaria or hungary. lol and, they usually do.
EU already has a welfare burden with Romania and Greece/Cyprus on its rolls. They don't need Serbia added to this list. lol
Btw, Holland still vetos any entry for Serbia unless they give up mladic and karadjic.
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Post by vinjak on Mar 5, 2008 22:22:38 GMT -5
Ha we have seen how they promise everything when Serbia moves away to try and influence people, and when people believe them they pull the rug from under there feet with ridiculous demands.
It could very well be that we are seeing the end of the EU and good riddance if it comes to that.
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 6, 2008 0:27:05 GMT -5
"They are desperate for Serbia to join. Imagine not having any control over that gas pipeline."
They are preparred to bend over and give anything except for kosovo.
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Post by terroreign on Mar 6, 2008 0:33:32 GMT -5
Serbia have already turned to Boris Tadic, you guys abandoned Kosovo yourselves, Tadic WILL recognize kosovo
Serbs already are calling tadic an "ustasa"
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 6, 2008 0:41:39 GMT -5
^ lets see what happens
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cedorsk
Amicus
Kosovo Je Srbija
Posts: 304
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Post by cedorsk on Mar 6, 2008 2:05:33 GMT -5
Trip - "EU already has a welfare burden with Romania and Greece/Cyprus on its rolls. They don't need Serbia added to this list. lol"
Ummmm - Speaking of Welfare
The pyramid scheme phenomenon in Albania is important because its scale relative to the size of the economy was unprecedented, and because the political and social consequences of the collapse of the pyramid schemes were profound. At their peak, the nominal value of the pyramid schemes' liabilities amounted to almost half of the country's GDP. Many Albanians—about two-thirds of the population—invested in them. When the schemes collapsed, there was uncontained rioting, the government fell, and the country descended into anarchy and a near civil war in which some 2,000 people were killed. Albania's experience has significant implications for other countries in which conditions are similar to those that led to the schemes' rise in Albania, and others can learn from the way the Albanian authorities handled—and mishandled—the crisis.
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Post by fannoli on Mar 6, 2008 3:38:38 GMT -5
They are desperate for Serbia to join. Imagine not having any control over that gas pipeline. lol hilarious What gas pipeline? serbia is not a high/medium producer of gas or oil. Your contribution is insignificant.
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Post by radovic on Mar 6, 2008 10:26:28 GMT -5
Serbia have already turned to Boris Tadic, you guys abandoned Kosovo yourselves, Tadic WILL recognize kosovo Serbs already are calling tadic an "ustasa" Tadic, in order to win, said he will never recognize Kosovo. Tadic will not recognize them. Bez vredjanja, pa cak i Siptara (vise dostojanstva), molim. Hvala
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Post by radovic on Mar 6, 2008 10:28:16 GMT -5
They are desperate for Serbia to join. Imagine not having any control over that gas pipeline. lol hilarious What gas pipeline? serbia is not a high/medium producer of gas or oil. Your contribution is insignificant. It's called South Stream, it transports gas to Italy (and potentially austria and germany). While NABUCCO, isn't being built.
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Fender
Commanding Moderator
Hardarse
Posts: 2,653
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Post by Fender on Mar 6, 2008 20:04:29 GMT -5
lol hilarious What gas pipeline? serbia is not a high/medium producer of gas or oil. Your contribution is insignificant. It's called South Stream, it transports gas to Italy (and potentially austria and germany). While NABUCCO, isn't being built. Couldn't have put it better myself.
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 6, 2008 20:46:33 GMT -5
"What gas pipeline? serbia is not a high/medium producer of gas or oil. Your contribution is insignificant."
Obiviously your playing dumb.....what does the name Gazprom ring?
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Fender
Commanding Moderator
Hardarse
Posts: 2,653
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Post by Fender on Mar 6, 2008 20:55:02 GMT -5
"What gas pipeline? serbia is not a high/medium producer of gas or oil. Your contribution is insignificant." Obiviously your playing dumb.....what does the name Gazprom ring? He is just plain ignorant. spews out so called facts without proper research. Typical head in the sand stuff.
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Post by Novi Pazar on Mar 7, 2008 0:34:39 GMT -5
^ l know Fan is not stupid but he likes to do alittle instigation at times lol
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