The resolution on Serbia, drafted by David McAllister (EPP, Germany) was passed by 50 votes to 4, with 2 abstentions. The full House will vote on the four separate resolutions in Strasbourg in March.
The resolution on Serbia did not include a proposal by Croatian MEPs (EPP) that Serbia be demanded, as a condition for the opening of talks on the judiciary chapter, to amend its law on war crimes trials whereby it declared its jurisdiction over all war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
Ahead of the vote, McAllister, who is Rapporteur for Serbia, said that at the request of Croatian MEPs the EPP parliamentary group agreed that the European Commission should be asked to analyse that Serbian law to see whether it was in line with generally accepted standards of criminal and international law.
If the proposal is upheld by other parliamentary groups, it can be added to the resolution as a verbal amendment during the vote at the plenary session.
On Monday night Croatian MEP Andrej Plenkovic blasted the Commission's representative.
To be crystal clear, the European Commission's stance is that conditioning the opening of Chapter 23 at this moment would be a harmful precedent, because there is no European acquis in that area, Simon Mordue of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations said, adding that it would not be fair to ask Serbia to change the law that was very similar to laws applied in several member states.
"I had expected the Commission to do more than just its homework. I think that the examples mentioned cannot refer to some quasi-universal jurisdiction that Serbia has extended only to countries of the former Yugoslavia. That would be a very negative way of explaining what universal jurisdiction is. In future I would ask that you refrain from combining not just different types of fruit but from putting vegetables and fruit in the same basket," Plenkovic said in response.
Plenkovic on Tuesday said that he would submit a written request to Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn to examine the issue in detail.
The resolution incorporates amendments by Croatian and other MEPs asking Serbia to do more in shedding light on the fate of people gone missing in the war.
An amendment put forward by Croatian MEP Tonino Picula was also included in the resolution, asking Serbia to "fully and constructively implement bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries to resolve contentious bilateral issues."
MEPs welcomed the resumption of high-level talks between Kosovo and Serbia and called for the full normalisation of relations. However, they pointed to continuing problems in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia regarding the rule of law, corruption, discrimination, the pace of structural reforms, and political polarisation.