Serbia is to submit a formal application on Tuesday to join the European Union's 27-nation bloc¹.

本周二塞尔维亚将向欧盟27国集团正式提出加入申请。

presidency²" width="226" height="170" src="/upimg/091222/4_052535_1.jpg" />
Boris Tadic will fly to Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency

President Boris Tadic will fly to Stockholm斯德哥尔摩, where he will submit the application to Swedish Prime Minster Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The EU recently unfroze a free trade agreement with Belgrade贝尔格莱德.

But Serbia still has to cross a major hurdle³, the capture of two remaining war fugitives⁴, before membership negotiations⁵ will begin in earnest认真的，正经的.

Visa-free travel

Serbia feels it has built up a certain momentum⁶ on its path to the EU in the past few weeks.

An important trade pact⁷ with the bloc has now come into force and Serbs were recently granted visa-free travel to most EU countries.

But Serbia's attempts to gain membership have been hampered限制，阻碍 by concerns, particularly in the Netherlands, over its failure to capture the two remaining war fugitives indicted⁹ by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia前南斯拉夫国际刑事法庭 (ICTY), based in the Hauge

Chief among them is the former Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic.

Earlier this month the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor¹⁰ said Serbia's co-operation with ICTY was "progressing".

However, in his report to the UN, Serge Brammertz said Serbia must continue searching for both Gen Mladic and Goran Hadzic, who is wanted for war crimes in Croatia克罗地亚.

Long road ahead

Belgrade is now pinning its hopes on the next report by the chief prosecutor, expected in June.

If that proves a positive assessment¹¹ of Serbia's hunt for the fugitives, the Dutch may be persuaded to soften¹² and allow the next stage of the application process to move forward.

The BBC's Mark Lowen, in Belgrade, says that a long road lies ahead: it's likely to take at least four years before the hand of membership extends to Serbia.