Olli Rehn said the EU expected the new Serbian leaders to show full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and take concrete measures to arrest ICTY fugitives, notably Ratko Mladic.
Rehn said he was reasonably optimistic about the possibility that pro-European and reform forces win the 21 January elections, adding this would enable the completion of the suspended negotiations on Serbia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union, which would help the country gain candidate status.
He said he planned to visit Belgrade soon after the elections, namely before 12 February when the EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the continuation of SAA negotiations with Serbia.
The European commission suspended the SAA talks last May after Serbia failed to locate and arrest the Bosnian Serb wartime military leader, General Ratko Mladic, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal.
Asked if the SAA negotiations would resume without Mladic's extradition to The Hague, Rehn reiterated that full cooperation was the condition for closing the agreement.