European foreign ministers on Monday recommended implementing a key trade treaty with Serbia after the Netherlands decided to support the ratification process.

For two years, the Netherlands had refused to back the treaty until Serbia increased its cooperation with tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
The treaty needs to be signed before formal EU membership talks with Serbia can begin.
Pressure
Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz told foreign ministers on Monday that Serbia had been assisting his investigation even though Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic remains at large, the Financial Times reported.
The paper says Dutch diplomats rejected suggestions the change of heart amounted to a policy shift. Instead, they argued their campaign of sustained pressure was responsible for bringing dozens of Serbian fugitives to justice in recent years.
‘The story here is that the pressure is working,’ a Dutch diplomat told the paper.