Serbia’s voters have the chance to decide their troubled country’s future after President Boris Tadic called early elections on Thursday.

When they vote on May 11, with the Kosovo crisis heavy on their hearts, they will have to choose between two very different outlooks. Mr Tadic’s Democrats and their allies will pledge to fight for rapid European Union integration, working around the Kosovo issue rather than confronting it head on. Prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s conservatives and the nationalist Radical party will insist on no compromises. To avoid being cast as a traitor, Mr Tadic muddies the waters by claiming he can secure both EU integration and Kosovo. But most voters are not fooled: they know the choice they face.

Unfortunately the election will not produce a clear result. Voters will mostly split three ways, as they did in the last parliamentary poll, between Mr Tadic, Mr Kostunica and the Radicals. Mr Kostunica will have to choose between a pro-EU or a nationalist coalition. Serbian voters must persuade him to go for the EU. The alternative is isolation from the west and a position among Moscow’s client states alongside Belarus and Uzbekistan.

Brussels should avoid being drawn into the campaign. But it can promote integration from the margins. Thursday’s news that EU accession talks with Croatia should be finished by late 2009 was most welcome for the whole region. The timetable should inspire Croatia to finish preparations and encourage other countries to follow Zagreb’s example, not least Belgrade.

The region’s urgent need for EU-oriented progress was underlined by worrying developments in Macedonia, where the government faces collapse. While the immediate cause is an internal ethnic row, the country is under severe external pressure from neighbouring Greece. Athens refuses to recognise Macedonia under its chosen name, insisting it must be known internationally as Fyrom – the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Greece is concerned a change might somehow prompt Macedonian claims to the Greek province of Macedonia.

Greece should drop this approach. The hazards of confusing Macedonia with Greek Macedonia are nothing compared with the risks of instability in Macedonia. The country needs the confidence-boost that would come from full international recognition for its name. It is particularly dangerous that this row has flared when Macedonia, along with Croatia and Albania, is hoping to join Nato. It would be inexcusable if Macedonia lost out because of this unhelpful argument with Greece.