No rebuke for Nikolic on maiden visit to EU HQ

DPA/Brussels

Nikolic is welcomed by EU Commission president Barroso and by EU president Van Rompuy (right) yesterday

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic received no fresh European Union condemnation for his refusal to recognise the Srebrenica massacre as genocide, during his maiden visit to Brussels yesterday.Nikolic has said at least twice in recent weeks that the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim males by Serb forces during the Bosnian war was an atrocity, but not genocide, despite rulings by international tribunals to the contrary.“I know that sometimes there are painful moments in the not-so-distant past, but now we have to look to the future,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint press conference.He defended the decision to send EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule to Belgrade for Nikolic’s inauguration on Monday, whereas most Balkan leaders boycotted the event because of his remarks over Srebrenica.Fule’s presence was “an expression of our confidence and our support not only to Serbia but to all countries in the region”, Barroso said.Earlier, EU President Herman Van Rompuy also skirted the controversy, calling on Serbia “to play a positive and constructive role in words and deeds”.The Serbian leader had previously been chastised by Brussels.“The European Union strongly rejects any intention to rewrite history,” the European Commission said last week, while the Danish EU presidency called Nikolic’s remarks “most unwelcome”.The Serbian president, who unexpectedly managed to unseat his pro-Western predecessor Boris Tadic last month, visited Moscow ahead of his trip to Brussels – a move that some saw as a snub to the EU.Van Rompuy and Barroso warned him that “further normalisation of relations with Kosovo” was essential before Serbia could start accession talks with the EU.“I was assured that the European Union will not demand from us to recognise Kosovo officially, but is demanding from us to have better relations,” the Serbian leader told reporters, adding that he wanted to start negotiations “by the end of this year”.The EU is first insisting on the implementation of co-operation deals on borders and other technical issues that the bloc has brokered between the two sides. But Nikolic said he wants to review their content.“I will support all the agreements that are not against the constitutional order of Serbia and are not harmful to the citizens of Serbia,” he said.Nikolic was a member of the government when Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic launched a heavy-handed intervention against Albanian rebels in Kosovo, prompting a Nato bombing campaign and land invasion that led to Pristina’s secession from Belgrade.In recent years, Nikolic has toned down his positions, but since his election victory he has stuck to Serbia’s default position on not giving up sovereignty claims over Kosovo.