Serbian parliament passes pre-membership treaty with EU (Roundup)

Belgrade - The Serbian parliament on Tuesday backed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union, taking a small step toward membership of the bloc. In the 250-seat assembly, 140 voted for the SAA, which is a pre- membership agreement and still a long way off full membership of the EU, while 28 representatives from former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's camp voted against. None of the 78 deputies from the opposition ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which is in turmoil and crumbling over Serbian relations with EU, took part in the vote. Serbia and the EU initialled the SAA in November 2007 and signed it in late April in Luxembourg. Now the 27 EU member states also need to approve the treaty to put it into effect, which remains unlikely until Serbia brings the two internationally wanted war crime fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, to justice. The UN war crimes prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, is due in Belgrade Wednesday and Thursday. Following the visit, he plans to assess the level of cooperation by Serbia and report to EU ministers. Though Mladic and Hadzic remain on the run, Serbia is hoping that a positive report by Brammertz could launch a series of SAA ratifications among member states and lead to its promotion to a membership candidate as early as 2009. 'This is a historic moment for Serbia,' the Serbian deputy premier in charge of relations with EU, Bozidar Djelic, told reporters after the SAA ratification. 'The road is paved for Serbia to put up its membership candidacy.' Once it comes into effect, the treaty would define the terms and conditions in the flow of goods, people and capital between the EU and Serbia, as well as dictate the tempo of legislative alignment by the prospective member. The SAA vote was delayed by two months by the nationalist opposition, which obstructed each motion in parliament by filibustering and forced an early, prolonged recess in mid-July. The outcome has finally firmly set Serbia on its European course, after months of wavering in the wake of the secession of its province of Kosovo, which triggered the fall of Kostunica's government and early elections in May. The pro-European camp grouped behind President Boris Tadic closely defeated the Serbian nationalist bloc - which has since started splitting amid infighting between hardliners and moderates. Though neither of the two wings took part in the SAA vote, the moderate leader, Tomislav Nikolic, described the ratification as 'historic.' Claiming to control 19 of the 78 SRS seats in the assembly just days after resigning as the acting party leader, it is expected that Nikolic would either gain control over the SRS and reform it toward the political centre or form a new party. Legislators, including all SRS deputies, also overwhelmingly passed a major energy deal with Russia - with 212 votes in favour and 26 against - despite criticism that it included an unfavourable sale of the national oil monopoly NIS. According to the deal, Russia would divert its projected multibillion-dollar South Stream natural gas pipeline to cross Serbia and buy a 51-per-cent stake in NIS for 400 million euros (570 million dollars). Among the votes against the treaty with Russia were representatives of G17 Plus, a reformist party which is a part of Tadic's ruling coalition. Pointing to independent audits, G17 claims that the value of NIS is three times greater than what it is being sold for. In a session with only a series of votes on the agenda, parliament also approved a series of credit arrangements worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The deals had also been stalled for months owing to political uncertainty in Serbia.