Comment: Belgrade Agreement Mistake Finally Corrected

Serbia and Montenegro’s state union has been significantly lagging behind other Balkan states on the path towards European Union accession.

The state union – the only one in the world – has not been functioning.

The difficulty of economic integration has been a major problem, but by no means the only one. Serbia has also had to deal with extremely powerful oligarchs who outlived the Milosevic regime, the unresolved status of Kosovo and Metohija and poor cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

The EU has tried to help Serbia and Montenegro on its way to Euro-Atlantic integration, but by advocating the idea of the political unity in any way, Brussels has been supporting a bureaucratic and economically non-functioning entity.

For the past two years it has been a disunited market, with two currencies and no free flow of goods, people and capital. And it has now become clear that there is little prospect of creating a state union in such a way.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the party I belong to, there was no serious political force in Serbia prepared to face the truth.

Now Brussels has stepped in to protect the interests of Serbia and its citizens by allowing the state union with Montenegro to follow “parallel track” economic integrations.

Serbia, aware of political instability in neighbouring countries, is prepared to become the mainstay of integration in the Balkans - equal to Croatia and Bulgaria in the eyes of Brussels - as its market is most open to others in the region.

Under the former economic conditions this was not possible for the state union.

That is why I believe that the abandonment of the plan to harmonise the Serbian and Montenegrin markets does not represent defeat for the European idea in the western Balkans but, on the contrary, it means abandoning the idea of the planned economy on which Yugoslav unity was once based.

What was our first reaction to the new concept of a double-track approach to EU accession?

First, the realisation that we could be more efficient and take advantage of the current institutional and professional capacities to speed up the process with the aim of achieving overall stabilisation – political, economic and social.

Second, the realisation that the EU is prepared to supplement the policy of conditioning with that of engagement, as a model for partnership with the body.

Third, the realisation that Serbia and Montenegro’s parallel track will create a positive political environment for the functioning of the state union.

Fourth, the conclusion that the parallel-tracking decision destroys the arguments of the Euro-sceptics in the region, makes the European agenda part of the stabilization process in Serbia, and makes it more difficult for anti-European rhetoric to be used for daily political purposes.

For the Serbian government, EU support is not just significant from the standpoint of its overall vision of European future, but it also means recognition of its efforts towards EU association. I have in mind extensive legislative work, namely eight laws, which have been recently adopted. These will have to be implemented soon to avoid the process of integration slowing down further.

The double-track approach is a big positive signal for Serbia and bolsters the government in the task it gave itself when it agreed to make the transition agenda a priority.

To me personally, this is a chance to maintain the positive achievements of the Belgrade Agreement and reform the parts that have not been implemented.

My life philosophy is that it is not a problem if someone makes a mistake sometimes; the problem arises when the mistake is not corrected later. I think that’s been the case with Serbia and Montenegro’s EU integration process.

Miroljub Labus is one of Serbia’s deputy prime ministers.