World News: EU Urges New Leader Of Serbia Not to Waver
European Union officials reacted cautiously to Sunday's election of a populist president in Serbia, urging the Balkan nation's new leader not to deviate from the path of reconciliation and transformation required to eventually join the regional bloc.</br></br>Serbian voters, angry with high unemployment and flagging economic growth, ousted pro-Western leader Boris Tadic and instead chose Tomislav Nikolic, a former opponent of EU membership who now says belonging to the group is the "only acceptable solution" for Serbia.</br></br>Some Serbians, as well as EU and U.S. officials, however, question whether Mr. Nikolic, who until 2008 belonged to the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, will be as willing as his predecessor to make the compromises necessary to win admission to the 27-nation club.</br></br>The chief of the EU's executive arm, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said Monday in a joint statement that Belgrade should move quickly on European integration, in part by improving relations with the breakaway province of Kosovo.</br></br>Brussels and Washington have come to see the integration of Serbia and other Balkan states into the EU as the best way to secure the Continent's southeastern flank and defuse lingering tensions from the interethnic warfare that accompanied the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Serbia was granted official candidate status in March, while nearby Croatia is set to become a full member in 2013.