He insists that he is fully aware of the need for speedy integration, and points out that he is a veteran of two other successful mergers, one of which produced Duke Energy, one of America's biggest electricity firms.
But Milica Delevic, director of Serbia's European integration office, points out that, with Serbia blocked by the Mladic affair, it is becoming harder either to motivate officials or to maintain popular enthusiasm for the EU in a country that has been hearing the mantra of Europe ever since the fall of Milosevic in 2000.