ICTY and EU clash on Serbia's EU accession

Several EU countries have indicated they want to reward Serbia's last minute compromise on the text of a Kosovo resolution in the UN General Assembly, September 10. The EU's foreign policy head Catherine Ashton has promised Serbia she would try to convince EU Foreign Ministers to forward Serbia's application for EU membership to the European Commission. However, on several occasions, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has stated that Serbia is not doing everything to arrest the two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. He insists the EU should maintain pressure on Serbia.

The head of Serbia's committee in charge of co-operation with ICTY, Rasim Ljajic, has said that Serbia has a vested interest in the arrests but that there are no leads as to their whereabouts. Brammertz has always insisted that both Mladic and Hadzic are "within reach" of the Serbian authorities.

The Netherlands has always linked Serbia's EU accession to Serbia's level cooperation, as determined by ICTY. Since the decision on EU enlargement needs to be unanimous, this may prove a problem for Serbia. But the UN tribunal is under pressure as well, since the ICTY mandate will end in 2014.