Written answers

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

International Agreements

9:00 pm

Photo of Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 89: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade while acknowledging Serbia's arrest of indicated war criminals, if he will ensure Serbia's compliance with those articles in the stabilisation and association agreement requiring the necessity of Serbia's contribution to stabilisation of the region and their fostering of regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations in view of recent provocative statements regarding Kosovo made by a Serbian Minister and in view of recent difficulties in the trade deal between Kosovo and Serbia. [26016/11]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Dáil Éireann approved the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) on 21 July 2011. A letter communicating Ireland's ratification of the SAA was sent to the Council of the European Union on 23 September 2011. The EU-Serbia SAA will come into effect once all EU Member States have ratified the agreement. Currently, eight Member States are still in the process of completing their national ratification procedures. Articles 14-17 of the Agreement, which deal with regional cooperation, are a crucial part of the SAA . They require Serbia to actively promote regional cooperation and to commit itself to the development of good neighbourly relations, including through free trade. Similar obligations apply equally to other Western Balkans countries which have concluded Stabilisation and Association Agreements with the EU.

Serbia and Kosovo have been engaged in an EU-facilitated dialogue since March 2011 following on from a joint EU-Serbia resolution at the UN General Assembly last year. The talks led to agreements on a number of practical matters including civil registry, freedom of movement and acceptance of university and school diplomas. Tensions escalated in northern Kosovo in late July in connection with customs controls at Kosovo's border with Serbia. Ireland and its EU partners appealed to both sides to show restraint. At a further round of Belgrade-Pristina talks on 2 September, agreements were reached on customs stamps and cadastral records. We welcome the fact that the talks were reconvened and that it was possible to reach agreement on a Kosovo customs stamp.

Ireland is a member of the board of Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), based in Sarajevo, which brings together all the countries of the Western Balkans and their neighbours and aims to promote cooperation in the region. Since the RCC was founded in 2008, Ireland has contributed almost €200,000 to it in furtherance of our national objective of enhancing cooperation in the Western Balkans. There have been improvements in regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations involving Serbia in recent years. Notable examples of this include: the establishment of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue; the March 2010 resolution of the Serbian Parliament condemning the Srebrenica massacre; the joint attendance of the Presidents of Serbia and Croatia at a ceremony in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July 2010 to mark the 15th anniversary of the massacre; and the visit of the Serbian President to Vukovar in Croatia in November 2010 to commemorate victims of a siege by Serb forces. In July 2011, President Tadic paid the first official visit by a Serbian President to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I welcomed the arrests this summer of Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic by the Serbian authorities, and their swift transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague for trial. The arrests represented an important step in addressing the appalling atrocities committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. Their trials in The Hague will help to further the cause of true reconciliation in the Western Balkans region.

On 12 October, the European Commission will publish its annual report on the EU Enlargement process, which will assess the progress of all the countries of the Western Balkans on key benchmarks, including their shared obligation to develop regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations. I look forward to receiving the report of the Commission on progress made by Serbia and all the countries of the Western Balkans in their preparations for accession to the European Union.

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