The Netherlands has given up its opposition to Serbian membership of the EU because its position has been come increasingly isolated, the NRC reports.

EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to give the European Commission the green light to start processing Serbia’s application to join the 27-state body. The Netherlands wants Serbia to do more to comply with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague
‘We were isolated,’ foreign minister Uri Rosenthal was quoted as saying. ‘Twenty six countries simply wanted to continue the process with Serbia. A lot were unhappy with our position.’
Compromise
However, in a gesture to the Dutch, the foreign ministers agreed that EU member states will be able to use their veto to block full membership at the next round of the admission process.
This compromise is in line with a motion backed earlier by the Dutch parliament, the NRC said.
Mladic
The Netherlands has consistently refused to agree to membership talks with Serbia until it cooperates fully with the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
In particular, The Netherlands wants Serbia to arrest Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic.
Mladic is charged with masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which 7,000 men and boys under the protection of Dutch UN peacekeepers were murdered.