Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 21 April, Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he believed his country deserved to open its first EU accession negotiation chapters in June. “We deserve to open the first chapters in June. I think we deserve it”, he said at a press conference with European Council President Donald Tusk, asking for Tusk's support.
Vucic returned to this point during a meeting with European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, asking him to open chapters in June. In Vucic's view, this opening would not only provide increased momentum to step up reforms in Serbia, but would also have symbolic significance for the Serbs, who would feel “members of the family”. Opening chapters requires unanimity from the member states.
Vucic also said that his country would prepare the action plan for Chapters 23 (judicial apparatus and fundamental rights) and 24 (freedom, security and justice). “We will deliver it as quickly as possible, which means in a week or 10 days”, he said at a press conference. The presentation of the action plan is needed in order to be able to open the chapters.
In Hahn's view, “everything is more or less ready” for opening Chapter 32 (financial control). “What we need is a decision clearly linked to Chapter 35 in order to see if we can find a solution that might enable us to open the negotiations. But it is less a question of timing than a question of political resolve and of being ready”, he said. Chapter 35 is linked to the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo (see other article) and some member states want this chapter to be opened at the same time as Chapters 23 and 24 (see EUROPE 11220).
Officially an EU candidate since March 2012, Serbia opened its accession negotiations on 21 January 2014 (see EUROPE 11001). (Camille-Cerise Gessant)