Serbia - Dutch to Block Serbia's Bid for EU Trade Pact, Balkenende Says - by Chris Burns and James G. Neuger
The Netherlands will block Serbia's appeal for a faster route to European Union membership due to the Belgrade government's failure to round up war criminals from the 1990s, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said. Balkenende said the Dutch government will prevent the EU from signing a trade agreement with Serbia on Jan. 28 and dismissed concern that the snub would strengthen an anti-EU candidate in Serbia's presidential election next weekend. ``The essential issue is that a state must not be willing to protect war criminals,'' Balkenende said in a Bloomberg Television interview late yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Most EU governments plan to grant diplomatic recognition to Kosovo after it declares independence in February, and the EU plans to send teams of police and judges to take over the management of the province of 2 million from the UN.
Note EU-Digest: Mr. Balkenende is totally correct in the statement he made. The EU must not embrace countries which protect war criminals.
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