Serbia in the EU?

Crann na Beatha

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Flamed Diving

Let's see what the CIA think of them:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ri.html

The Saint

I'm not too up on the situation there but I can't see why not as long as they fulfill all the criteria to join. Perhaps it might be an idea to have Kosovan (assuming they want to join) and Serbian accesstion processes to run in parallel to ensure stability.

WooPeeA

I'm against any of Balkans for now. They simply are not ready. EU membership is not a lottery, it's a serious political organization with biggest economy ever built and that's how we should maintain it. First we should finish our own job, such as adding new countries to the eurozone or creating a common energy and security policies. Too early.

Crann na Beatha

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Nodin

Iolar wrote: »

I see they have formally handed in their application to join the EU.would Serbia be a viable candidate in the EU?

Can't see why not, if they meet the entry criteria.

WooPeeA

Iolar wrote: »

Were you against Slovenia too?who by the way have been a member since 2004?

Slovenia has 3 times bigger GDP per capita than Serbia and 5 times bigger than Albania. It's also politically stabilized country, free from revolts and home war risk, respects human rights by signing European and international agreements + no terrorism and bigger crime problems.

Few weeks back I was also reading interesting report on freedom of speech in Europe and Serbia didn't look too good on that as well.

As I said I don't disqualify anyone. I think it's too early. We should price the EU membership a little bit more.

Eliot Rosewater

Slovenia are the special case to be fair. I traveled a lot of Europe through the summer, and Slovenia feels and costs more like Western Europe than Eastern Europe. You cannot compare them with Croatia, Serbia etc. They did not share as many of the effects of the Balkan conflict as other states did.

Thats why they joined in 2004.

Jk_Eire

It could easily be a decade before Serbia fulfils all the accession criteria and is in a position to join the EU.
It's a step in the right direction for Serbia since it will require massive reform from within in order to bring itself up to EU standards in terms of political, economical, and legal reform. Nothing but a good thing for a ex communist country that went through over a decade of wars and reconfigurations.

WooPeeA

Jk_Eire wrote: »

It could easily be a decade before Serbia fulfils all the accession criteria and is in a position to join the EU.
It's a step in the right direction for Serbia since it will require massive reform from within in order to bring itself up to EU standards in terms of political, economical, and legal reform. Nothing but a good thing for a ex communist country that went through over a decade of wars and reconfigurations.

Indeed. We shouldn't hurry this up for any reason.

bijapos

Is Serbia ready? No, and it will not be ready for the next few years either. It still needs massive internal reform, and they are still dealing with the consequences of the wars with Croatia, Bosnia and the Kosovo conflict.

We should learn from the mistakes of letting Romania and Bulgaria join in 2007. They were not ready either, they have had, and still have massive problems with corruption amongst other things.

Instead what should be applied in my opinion is a carrot and stick approach. Serbia still has major internal isues, not just economic ones but also democratic ones. They should be encouraged to reform, be given tangible rewards for doing so with the incentive of full membership as the final reward.

Flamed Diving

Just drifting away slightly, but what is the story with Turkey's application?

WooPeeA

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Just drifting away slightly, but what is the story with Turkey's application?

They refuse to accept the fact that Cyprus doesn't belong to them, they refuse to confirm their well known crimes on Macedonians and Greeks during few conflicts and few other issues. As far as I know the negotiations has been frozen.

Erper

No offense guys, but dont u think that judgin other countries is easy when u r in EU...
Honestly, when Ireland joined EU they were in much worst situation than Serbia today, but Ireland got lucky because Usa was behind their back and they were slightly in advance comparing to Serbia.
The only one who can push them is Rusia. But...
When Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and the rest of ex-Yugoslavia countries get to EU, EU will fall apart...
And one more thing, whole world dont like Balkans, and why? Because media serve all the worst about them, not looking at their own problems, which r more less the same.
Take Usa for example, bush send them to iraq, and what they did... Nothin, they become even more patetic than they were...