Serbia to submit EU candidacy application

BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Serbia, in a historic move, has decided to submit an application for European Union candidacy, President Boris Tadic says.

Tadic said that he and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic on Saturday signed a demand in the name of the government requesting an EU application, the news Web site B92 reported.

Tadic told B92 it's not a problem for Belgrade that Sweden, which has demanded the arrests of fugitive Serbian war criminals Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, can determine the fate of Serbia's EU application because Belgrade is doing everything in its power to wrap up its cooperation with the Balkans war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

"Our program is simple, we want Serbia in the European Union with our identity," Tadic said, adding that "today, no one can have a dilemma about what direction Serbia is heading in."

"With this decision, Serbia has mapped out the route which it will take in the coming period and has shown that it shares the values of European countries," Cvetkovic told reporters.

B92 quoted Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt as saying the application will be presented Tuesday in Stockholm.