BELGRADE, Serbia, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Germany's envoy in Belgrade said Monday the European Union will resume talks with Serbia immediately after Belgrade arrests a Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect.
German Ambassador Andreas Zobel said handing over former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague will lead to continuation of EU-Serbian association and stabilization talks that could make Serbia an EU membership candidate, Belgrade's B92 radio-television reported.
On Monday, Germany took over from Finland a six-month term of the rotating presidency of the EU.
Mladic is sought by the U.N. tribunal on genocide and crimes against humanity charges in 1991-95 ethnic wars in the former Yugoslavia, including the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995 and a three-year siege and shelling of Sarajevo.
Zobel said he hopes "democratic forces" will win Serbia's parliamentary elections Jan. 21 and a new government will bring changes and resume association talks with the EU.
The EU put off association talks with Serbia early in May after Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica failed to keep his promise to arrest and transfer Mladic to The Hague.
