Stabilisation and Association Agreement
Kosovo's provisional government unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. This was followed by most EU countries recognising Kosovo as an independent country. These events heavily influenced the Serbian political landscape. The central topic on which the coalition partners diverged was Serbia's EU accession.
On 4 April 2008, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, supported by Velimir Ilić, Minister of Infrastructure, stated that EU membership was no longer on the agenda for Serbia. Koštunica said that before EU accession continuation Serbia and the EU must discuss the matter of borders and Serbia's territorial integrity. He said that Serbia must by no means sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and referred to the agreement as "Solana's agreement".
At the same time President Boris Tadić said that the Vienna Convention allows him to sign the agreement and that he will sign it if it is offered. Božidar Đelić, Deputy Prime Minister, had previously been authorised by the Government to sign the agreement and was still willing to do so, which he did on 29 April 2008. The ceremony in Luxembourg was attended by President Boris Tadić and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić.
On 1 May Koštunica said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was right when he said that the SAA should have been signed but one day later on 2 May 2008 he vowed to annul the agreement after the election, calling it "a trick", "Solana's agreement" and "the Tadić-Đelić SAA signature".
After the Serbian parliamentary election of 2008, a new parliamentary majority and government was formed, and the SAA opposition was left without political power. The new Serbian Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetković, announced "One of the first moves of the new government will be to submit the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union to the parliament for ratification" and on 9 September 2008 the Parliament of Serbia ratified the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. The European Commission (EC) subsequently welcomed the ratification of the agreement.
On 15 September 2008, the Netherlands froze the trade related part of a pre-accession deal (SAA) with Serbia.
On 16 October 2008, the Serbian government unilaterally decided to begin implementing the Interim Trade agreement with the EU starting 1 January 2009.
By August 2012, all EU member states except Lithuania had ratified Serbia's SAA agreement. Danas has reported that this delay is due in part to the election of Vuk Jeremić, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, as President of the United Nations General Assembly in June 2012 ahead of Dalius Čekuolis, Lithuania's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Read more about this topic: Accession Of Serbia To The European Union
Famous quotes containing the words association and/or agreement:
“In this great association we know no North, no South, no East, no West. This has been our pride for all these years. We have no political party. We never have inquired what anybody’s religion is. All we ever have asked is simply, “Do you believe in perfect equality for women?” This is the one article in our creed.”
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—Bible: New Testament, 1 Corinthians 1:10.