Yugoslavia sanctions 'failing'

Milosevic stands firm in the face of sanctions

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels

The EU foreign ministers' first open debate on policy in the Balkans has ended with an admission of failure.

We should review the effectiveness of these sanctions

Irish foreign minister Brian Cowan

The French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, who chaired the meeting, said there was real scepticism about the sanctions against Yugoslavia among a growing number of EU member states.

But Mr Vedrine said there was no agreement on the reasons why sanctions were failing.

Some, he said, believed they were not being properly applied, others that they were too easy to circumvent; some considered them logical and necessary, while others thought they were absurd.

The Irish foreign minister Brian Cowan suggested there was too much stick and not enough carrot.

"We should review the effectiveness of these sanctions, which appear to be impacting primarily on the ordinary people of Serbia.

"The regime is benefiting through their control of the black market that has emerged in Serbia and it cannot be in our interest to impoverish the country," Cowan said.

Serbs' plight

But it is unclear when the EU will take a fresh look at the sanctions regime, which was imposed last year during the Kosovo conflict.

In an attempt to ease the plight of ordinary Serbs, the foreign ministers have now extended the suspension of a ban on commercial flights until next March.

They also discussed extending a white list of almost two hundred Yugoslav companies considered as legitimate trading partners for the EU.

And, to foster democracy in the region, the ministers backed a plan for a special EU-Balkans summit to be held in Croatia.

But, with general elections in Yugoslavia in early November, some doubt that the summit will achieve its aim, if the summit is scheduled, as planned, at the end of the month.