Serbia yesterday extradited accused war criminal Ratko Mladic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Commenting on the extradition, Green foreign affairs spokespersons Franziska Brantner and Ulrike Lunacek (EP rapporteur on Kosovo) said:

"The swift extradition of Ratko Mladic to the UN tribunal is another important signal that Serbia's government is willing to break with the past and steer the country towards its European destiny. The trial in The Hague is a necessary step in order to shed full light on the horrific events during the war in Bosnia and to serve justice.

"With Mladic's extradition, Serbia has made another step towards candidate status for EU accession, which the Greens welcome. But the country's ability to be an integral part of today's Europe needs to be demonstrated in other areas as well. Incidents like the boycott of the meeting of Central and Eastern European heads of state and government with US president Barack Obama in Warsaw by the Serbian president because of the presence of Atifete Jahjaga, Kosovo's president, are incompatible with Serbia's aspiration for EU candidate status. Among the objectives of the EU-sponsored dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo figure both good neighbourly relations and closer ties with the EU. In this regard Serbia must show more goodwill because its progress towards EU accession will eventually depend on the normalisation of its relations with Kosovo."