Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 392: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his position regarding the failure to arrest General Ratko Mladic and other war crime suspects and the resumption of talks by the EU with Serbia on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12461/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb Commander during the Bosnian war, was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1995 for his role in the killing of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of a number of war crimes suspects believed to remain at large in Serbia in spite of the obligation of the Serbian Government, as a member of the United Nations, to cooperate fully with the ICTY in arresting Mladic and other suspects and transferring them to custody in The Hague to face trial. Cooperation with ICTY is a precondition for all the States of the region in pursuing talks on Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs) with the EU. Given Serbia's failure to cooperate with the ICTY, as certified by the ICTY Chief Prosecutor, the EU Commission suspended the SAA negotiations with Serbia on 3 May 2006.

The EU has not resumed talks with Serbia on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement. The position is that the Member States, at the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 12 February 2007, reiterated the commitment to a European perspective for Serbia and welcomed the Commission's readiness to resume negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with a new government in Belgrade provided it shows clear commitment to full cooperation with the ICTY and takes concrete and effective action in this regard. I hope that a new reformist Government will soon be in place in Serbia, and that it will quickly demonstrate its willingness to take the necessary steps to meet the Union's requirements.