EU Commission recommends start of Serbia EU membership talks

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Commission recommended on Monday that negotiations begin with Serbia on membership of the European Union.

After months of on-off negotiations, Serbia agreed last week to cede its last remaining foothold in Kosovo, its former province, striking an historic accord to settle relations in exchange for talks on joining the European Union.

"The Commission considers that Serbia has met the key priority of taking steps towards a visible and sustainable improvement of relations with Kosovo," the European Union's executive body wrote in a joint report on the Serbia-Kosovo talks.

"The European Commission therefore recommends that negotiations for accession to the Union should be opened."

Launching negotiations to join the EU represents a milestone for Serbia, which has taken longer than most other Balkan states to emerge from the ruins of the conflicts that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

Croatia, another former Yugoslav state, is set to join the European Union from July this year, becoming the 28th member of the bloc. Accession is likely to bring large benefits in terms of foreign investment and trade opportunities.

Serbia will be hoping for similar benefits once its accession talks are complete, a process that is likely to take at least a couple of years.

While all parties to the negotiations over Serbia and Kosovo are hoping the terms of the agreement will hold firm, there are already concerns about potential backsliding.

Serb municipal lawmakers in northern Kosovo, which Serbs consider a cradle of their nation, have demanded a referendum on whether Kosovo should be part of Serbia, or whether Belgrade should accept the conditions set down by the European Union.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and Martin Santa; editing by Rex Merrifield)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-commission-recommends-start-serbia-eu-membership-talks-095132792.html

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