Is Serbia ready to chair the Council of Europe?

Serbia has a golden opportunity to boost its international image when it assumes the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe next month. But Serbia's critics say the country isn't fit to lead Europe's foremost human rights body - certainly not without extraditing the indicted General Ratko Mladic. War crimes prosecutors in The Hague have criticized Belgrade for not cooperating in the hunt for Mladic, and the issue has long soured relations with the European Union. The Dutch lawyer Phon van der Biesen told Radio Netherland's Sebastiaan Gottlieb why Serbia shouldn't chair the Council of Europe.

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In France voters will hit the polls this Sunday and the large majority of the electorate is still undecided on who to support. However France's neighbours have been closely following the French election campaign and it seems that Ségolène Royal is their preferred president. Twice as many would prefer the French socialist presidential candidate, compared to her conservative rival Nicolas Sarkozy. That’s the results of a Harris Interactive survey for the Financial Times newspaper canvasing opinions in Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain. Admittedly that’s only four out of twenty seven European member states, and it’s just an opinion poll. Radio France Internationale's Nick Champeaux sounded out the opinions of European correspondents in the French capital. 

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