Rupel: EU Will Not Insist on Mladic’s Extradition

Dimitrij Rupel claims that the EU will not insist on the extradition of Ratko Mladic as a condition for the SAA with Serbia.

Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel told European Voice that the European Union would give up on conditioning the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia on the country’s extradition of warlord Ratko Mladic.

Rupel, however, claims that some difficult conditions for Serbia should be transferred to the final part of negotiations with the EU. He added that Serbia’s cooperation with the international crimes tribunal did not necessarily mean Mladic’s extradition.

According to the Slovene news agency, Slovenia, Greece and Italy advocate a more lenient attitude towards Serbia, while the international community is not unified in the interpretation of Serbia’s so-called constructive cooperation with The Hague’s tribunal.