Byzantine Blog

The Signature Can be Withdrawn

According to Wednesday report by Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, if the unofficial announcements coming from Brussels that the EU will not decide to send its mission to Kosovo-Metohija on January 28 are confirmed, Serbia will on that day sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the Union.

However, in case the EU administrators decide to send this mission for implementation of UN Security Council-rejected Ahtisaari plan afterwards, such action in itself will effectively annul the agreement signed with Serbia. In that case, based on the Kosovo-Metohija Resolution adopted by the Serbian Parliament, Serbia would void the agreement with the EU.

According to Vecernje Novosti, the final decision about whether Serbia will sign the SAA with the EU or not, will be made by the Serbian government at the end of January.

EU Causes Split Within the Ruling Coalition

This is when the ruling coalition could find itself on the brink of dissolution, since the differences between the parties forming the coalition in regards to the relation toward the EU are becoming more pronounced and threatening to cause the split.

Members of Tadic’s DS (Democratic party) and Dinkic’s G17 Plus are issuing daily statements pushing for the signing of this agreement, while Premier Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and Ilic’s New Serbia party (NS) are demanding that the EU gives up on sending its mission to Kosovo and Metohija before Serbia accepts and signs the agreement.

Serbian Parliament will Not Ratify SAA if EU Sends its Mission After it is Signed

Novosti sources claim that the ruling coalition would undoubtedly be destroyed in case Tadic’s DS unilaterally decides to sign the SAA at the same time when decision to send the illegal EU mission to a part of Serbian territory is made. At the same time, Serbian government would still be able to block the implementation of the SAA agreement even after it was signed.

In fact, the temporary SAA agreement which relates to trade, comes to force only after it gets ratified in Serbian parliament. Without the backing of the Democratic Party of Serbia, which would most certainly be withheld in case Brussels decides to send its mission to southern Serbian province, there would be no necessary parliament majority for ratification of the SAA.

EU to Help its Candidate for Serbian Presidency by Postponing Decision

Divisions within Serbia’s ruling coalition could additionally complicate the runoffs to the presidential elections scheduled for February 3, when it is expected that current President Tadic faces the fiercest challenge for the Office by Tomislav Nikolic, representative of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). It is expected that Brussels will delay sending of its mission to Kosovo-Metohija province in order to help the presidential candidate they favor, Boris Tadic, so he does not lose any votes over his stubborn promotion of the EU among Serbs.

On Tuesday, Vecernje Novosti Brussels’ correspondent reported that the EU diplomacy chiefs have decided not to approve the decision to send EU mission to Kosovo-Metohija on January 28 Council of Ministers. Instead, they will probably approve sending of their judiciary and police to southern Serbian province in February, after the presidential elections in Serbia.

“The Council of Ministers will debate about the models and timeframes for sending the mission, but the decision to send the mission, most probably, will not be made,” EU source told Novosti.

According to Belgrade daily, most of 1,800 posts EU plans to send to southern Serbian province without the UN Security Council approval, have already been filled. The majority of the EU mission members are Germans and Italians. The mandate of the EU mission planning team, put together at the beginning of 2006, ends on March 31, 2008.

Puppet States are No More than Passing Seasonal Events

“Serbia is waiting for the EU’s response: will it choose to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia, or decide to send its mission for destruction of Serbia on January 28,” said Minister Aleksandar Popovic.

He stressed that, for Serbia, freedom of the country is above everything and above all interests, and the EU will have to respect that if it wishes partnership with Serbia.

“If the EU decides to betray the basic principles on which it is founded, to violate the UN Charter and Resolution 1244 and illegally send its mission in order to create a puppet quasi-state, at that moment, it is quite clear, the agreement with Serbia will no longer exist,” said Popovic.

“European Union can sign the Agreement only with the whole, not with mutilated Serbia and that is why it has to choose between Serbia and the puppet-creation. The time will show that Serbia is forever, while the puppet creations are no more than seasonal events,” said Popovic.

Either Agreement or Mission — Legally, EU Can’t Have Both

Serbia’s Kosovo-Metohija Minister Slobodan Samardzic clarified that, legally speaking, the EU could not sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia and send its mission to Kosovo-Metohija to implement the rejected Ahtisaari plan.

“All founding acts the EU participates in oblige it to strictly respect international law and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of signatory countries,” Samardzic pointed out, adding that this obligation applied to Serbia as well, unless the EU wished to scrap the agreement in favor of sending an illegal mission to southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

“Serbia will respect the agreement down to the last letter, but the EU must do the same, and that means that it will have to refrain from sending a mission to the province,” said Samardzic.