FT.com - Tensions with Serbs raise fears over links with EU - Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Neil MacDonald

For the full report go to FT.com or click on this link

Tensions with Serbs raise fears over links with EU - Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Neil MacDonald

Concerns are mounting that Serbia could break with the west because of tensions over unfulfilled obligations to the international community. The country’s lack of progress in arresting and transferring Gen Ratlo Mladic, an indicted war criminal, is a key stumbling block, but European Union diplomats also fear Russian backing for hardliners in Serbia who question the need – or the inevitability – of a “European future” for south-eastern Europe. There was a “sense of urgency concerning Serbia” at an EU summit in Brussels last week that discussed ways of bolstering ties with Belgrade, according to one person who was present.

Foreign ministers in attendance warned that the EU needed to prevent Serbia from “falling into nationalism” and had to ensure that the country was not “lost.”