Change in Serbia

Considering the present unsteady state of the European Union it is surprising that politicians in other European countries seeking electoral support still do so by stressing their commitment to seeking membership of the EU. Last Sunday's election in Serbia was a case in point. In his presidential victory speech Tomislav Nikolic assured the country that “Serbia will not stray from its EU path”.

Fair enough, but the pledge came rather strangely from a man who was a close ally of the deposed and now deceased Slobodan Milosevic whose nationalistic policies were largely responsible for the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The pro-European approach now embraced by Mr Nikolic was established in 2004 by the man he defeated on Sunday, the liberal reformer Boris Tadic who had failed to make Serbia's economy work or to reduce the country's 24 per cent unemployment.

Serbia was granted EU candidacy status in March but the process of converting that into membership is a long one and it will be interesting to see whether Mr Nikolic stays the course after a political career with several about-turns in policy, among them commitment to the creation of a Greater Serbia and periods of close relations with Russia. He will also need to show that he accepts Kosovo's still fragile independence from Serbia. In the long run it is important that Serbia becomes an EU member. s