The European Union on Tuesday kept up pressure on Serbia to do more to resolve war crimes by again delaying a decision on unfreezing trade benefits despite the arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. After Karadzic's arrest last week, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged the bloc to grant improved trade conditions to Serbia, which hopes to join the EU one day.
But diplomats said ambassadors from the 27 EU states agreed to wait for Karadzic's transfer to the Hague war crimes tribunal and for UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz to report on whether Serbia was fully co-operating with the court - the condition for unblocking Belgrade's EU path.
An EU diplomat said envoys had agreed on these conditions last week and there had been no new developments. "Both are still lacking," he said after the ambassadors' last meeting before a month-long summer break. Asked whether this meant the decision was postponed until September at the earliest, the diplomat said: "You could put it like that. It's postponed until we have those two elements."