According to a statement from the Presidency of the EU Council on Tuesday 13 December, the member states hailed Serbia's progress in its EU accession negotiations, urging it to maintain its positive dynamic.
The statement "welcomes the reaffirmed commitment of the new Serbian government to the strategic objective of EU accession". In order to achieve this end, Serbia should step up its reform efforts and focus on effective implementation, in particular in rule of law areas such as judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime, the member states say. They call for special attention to be paid to the full respect of human rights, for the progress made in reforming the administration to be continued, and for Belgrade to come gradually into line with the EU's common foreign and security policy.
The statement also says that Serbia should "swiftly implement in good faith" the past agreements on the normalisation of relations with Kosovo, so that it can cooperate constructively with Pristina to develop new agreements and implement them. It "remains essential for the overall pace of the negotiating process" that "progress in the process of normalisation of relations with Kosovo" be made, the statement says.
Serbia also opened two further negotiation chapters on Tuesday 13 December (EUROPE will return to this). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)