Serbia moves closer to EU status - by Justyna Pawlak and Sebastian Moffett

The European Union gave Serbia the status of candidate for membership on Thursday in an attempt to promote better government in the western Balkans as the region struggles to emerge from the wars of the 1990s.

EU leaders took the decision at a summit in Brussels, launching a potentially lengthy process to bring the former Yugoslav republic into the bloc. It marks a turnaround for Serbia, once seen as the pariah of Balkans for its central role in wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic.

For more: Serbia moves closer to EU status - World News | IOL News | IOL.co.za

EU leaders set to endorse recommendation on Serbian candidacy for membership

European Union leaders are expected to formally grant Serbia the status of a candidate for membership in the bloc during their summit todayin recognition of its government’s efforts to round up war crimes suspects and normalize relations with Kosovo, its former province.

The move would represent a remarkable turnaround for Serbia, which spent much of the 1990s ostracized and isolated from the EU after its then-strongman Slobodan Milosevic started the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. When Milosevic agreed to a U.S.-brokered agreement to end the war in Bosnia in 1995, about 60,000 NATO troops — including about 30,000 Americans — were deployed to the nation to enforce the accord.

For more: EU leaders set to endorse recommendation on Serbian candidacy for membership - The Washington Post