EU quashes Montenegro's hopes of fast track membership

MONTENEGRO: Montenegro plans officially to declare independence from Serbia in the coming days, but the European Union has quashed its hopes of finding a short cut to membership.

President Filip Vujanovic said yesterday that Montenegro would proclaim itself a sovereign state "at the end of this week or the beginning of next week".

"It is very close. It is a question of days," he added, rejecting complaints from anti-independence campaigners of serious irregularities during a May 21st referendum, in which Montenegro's 650,000 people voted to end their ailing union with Serbia.

Montenegro now hopes to push ahead of Serbia and Bosnia in the queue of former Yugoslav republics aiming for EU membership, currently led by Croatia with Macedonia behind. Slovenia joined in 2004 and plans to adopt the euro in January.

But EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn told Montenegrin premier Milo Djukanovic yesterday that there was no "fast track" to membership for his fledgling state.

"Montenegro has a concrete European perspective, like the other countries of the western Balkans," Mr Rehn said. "However, I told the prime minister there is no short cut to Europe."

The commissioner added, however, that Brussels and Montenegro could complete talks this year on a vital stabilisation and association agreement, which lays the foundation for progressively closer relations between the EU and accession candidates. Brussels froze negotiations on such a deal with Belgrade last month, after it failed to meet the latest EU deadline to catch suspected war criminal Ratko Mladic.

Montenegro hopes to prosper once free of the diplomatic problems facing Serbia, foremost among them the continuing liberty of Gen Mladic and the UN-brokered talks on the future status of independence-minded Kosovo.

"We are conscious that international attention is now focused on us, and on our ability to adopt international standards," Mr Djukanovic said yesterday. "We are ready and capable of meeting such expectations."

"I'm confident that a small and flexible system such as Montenegro can within several years fulfil all the conditions for European membership," he added.In weekend meetings with Montenegrin leaders, Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, called for "cool heads" during divorce proceedings between the republics.

"We may have different positions but we respect democratic principles," he said. "Relations between Serbia and Montenegro have to be as good as possible."