Balkans Moving?

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Croatia gets tribunal thumbs-up

Perhaps there will be some movement onk key issues involving the Europeans integration of the Balkans the next few days. It's high time.

UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte is not the most consistent personality under the sun, but in the last few days she has been to both Belgrade and Zagreb praising their levels of cooperation with ICTY.

That increases the possibility that Croatia will be given a green light to start its accession negotiations with the European Union. They have been held up since mid-March over doubts whether Croatia was doing enough on the critical war crimes issues or not.

A green light from del Ponte now comes shortly after she announced that she knew that indicated Ante Gotovina was in a monastry somewhere in Croatia. But, again, consistency has not been her hallmark.

In parallel, it looks virtually certain that Serbia will get a green light for its talk on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. That's important both to them and to the region.

Some good times in times that really need it.